Deja Vu
by Lady Lemonade
Summary: It all started out with Kouichi wanting to admit his feelings for Izumi, and Takuya tagging along to help. And yet... how could such a simple, normal desire turn out so horribly wrong? AU. Kouji/Takuya, Mimi/Izumi, Yutaka/OC?
1. His Love, My Ideas

_Strangle me hard, take away my breath. Steal my kiss, and assassinate my heart. Let the rust consume my dreams, tearing them down through torrents of your thoughts. Let acid rain substitute my tears, corroding away my delicate features. Rip out my veins, put wires in their place. Deny my blood and accept my love. For after you have completed in transforming me to be what you hate, in the end you'll crave for what you have replaced._

_---_

"You owe me for Kingdom Hearts II!" a teenage male taunted, a smirk on his usually kind visage. "Come on, you know you want to help me! I've been your best friend since… since… well, since we were in diapers practically - well, more of kindergarden! Don't you remember stealing my bouncy ball?" he pressed, attempting to win over an answer that'd be in his favor. He had short black hair, somewhat choppy in appearance. It either needed a good brushing, or was due for a new haircut. It probably needed to be brushed, as it was a more tousled looking 'choppy' than anything else. He had large blue eyes, and a slightly pale skin tone. A mild red tint was on his face from the beating sun above, making the air heavy with heat. He wore a short-sleeve forest green shirt, and denim shorts. His colour choice gave him an earthly, although slightly surreal appearance. Wearing flip-flops that made a slight 'snap' sound as he hurried after his friend, one slipped out from his foot forcing him to yelp. The hot concrete burned his foot, and he began to wobble as he lifted up the relieved limb. Bending down, he placed the flip-slop back on, and rushed back after. "Please? I'll do anything for you!" came more pleas.

"I didn't steal your bouncy ball!" another male, the one being stalked after, snapped. "At least, I don't think I did…" he mumbled afterwards, thinking. He shook his head. "That's besides the point! Yes we've been friends since forever, but that doesn't mean… well… you know I can't help you!" he grumbled. His skin was darker than his friend's, a nice tan developed from the summer sun. He had mahogany eyes, a brownish colour with a red tint to it. His hair was a medium brown colour, a few hues above milk chocolate. It flared out near the edges, and reached his shoulders. If straightened, it'd go a bit below his shoulders. He wore a golden yellow cap, and goggles over them on his forehead. The hat was backwards on his head, the visor half facing what was behind him. He wore a simple, mustard-yellow shirt with a strange black design in the middle, and brown capris. Rather than wear flip-flops or sandals as most normal people did, he chose to wear red shoes. He was rather fond of his warm colours, wasn't he?

"My dear friend… my dearest, loyalist, and friendliest friend…" the first male began, placing a hand to stop the brunette from escaping as he grew tired of chasing. "It matters not if you can actually help me. So long as you're there for the ride cheering me on, and believing I can indeed achieve my goal, that is enough." He gave a warm smile, the kind of rare smile of hope and faith in those he cares for.

"You want me to work as a go-between, don't you?" the brunette asked with a sweat-drop.

"…something like that. Actually, I need your help in approaching people," the ravenette admitted, scratching the back of his head with his free hand as he laughed nervously. "You know how I'm… uhm…" He fumbled around for the words. The truth was hard to say.

"Shy?" The brunette asked with a grin at his friend.

"Yeah. That." The darker-haired one nodded to this fact. "So, will you Takuya?" he asked, routing his way back to his initial question.

"Fine fine, Kouichi. I'll try and help you win over the fair Orimoto Izumi's heart." The brunette, Takuya, sighed in defeat.

"Oh, thank you so much!" the darker-haired male, Kouichi, cheered and hugged his friend tightly. "You won't regret it, I promise!"

"Yeah yeah, you say that now. So… what do I get in return for helping you?" Takuya asked, tilting his head with one finger on his chin. "A new memory card maybe? Perhaps a mural depicting my awesomeness?" He ticked off ideas as they came to mind. His friend sweat-dropped.

"After eleven years, you still have the biggest ego I've ever seen," Kouichi mumbled to himself, earning a grin from his friend. "And wait a minute! I thought friends helped each other in their times of need!" He pouted.

"True. But this isn't your time of need. This is your 'I need a date' time," the 'kind' brunette said with a twist on words.

"You're so cruel. Fine. How about… I help you get a date with Tachikawa Mimi?" Kouichi suggested. The brunette stuck out his tongue, expressing his distaste for the idea. Or was it for the girl?

"No way. I'm not interested in going out in **anyone** right now," Takuya huffed, crossing his arms like a sulking child.

"Yeah, but one day your hormones will kick in. When that day comes, I'll help you win over Mimi's heart. By drawing pretty pictures to go with your pretty poems." Kouichi smiled happily with his decision, and nodded. "That's precisely it. Let me know when your hormones kick in, this way Izumi and I shall assist you!" With this, he pushed the complaining brunette towards school.

----

"I see you're all in class. Very good. Now… recite the lyrics to 'Mad World' by Tears for Fears!" a man demanded of his class. The students stared at him with wide, horrified faces. This man had dark brown hair that spiked up, but was in a long ponytail in the back. He wore a casual outfit, but for some reason… he reminded all of the students of Obi-Won Kenobi from Star Wars. Perhaps it was the hair? Or maybe how he seemed incredibly wise at moments…

"MY GOD! MY TOURNIQUET! RETURN TO ME SALVATION!!" a girl screamed. Or was it singing? It sounded an awful lot like screaming to the other students. Several of them clamped their hands over their ears, including Takuya and Kouichi.

"NO! Just… just stop! No!" the teacher hollered over the girl, making her cease this… 'singing'. "Just no! That's not it!"

"What about--" the girl began, but was interrupted.

"NO!" came the teacher's holler. He didn't want to hear any more from her.

"I find it kind of funny, and I find it kind of sad… the dreams in which I'm dying, are the best I ever had," another 'girl' said, with a voice not as painful on the ears.

"Very good Ichigo, you knew at least part of the chorus." The teacher nodded in approval, and got a beaming student straightening themselves in the chair they sat in. Ichigo wasn't entirely a girl, nor entirely a boy. But no one except Ichigo knew that. None of this is important. But it's fun to mention.

"Someone needs to stick an apple in her mouth for the entirety of the class." Takuya scowled, gritting his teeth as he glowered over at the loud girl whose voice still had his ears ringing. He felt personally that Ichigo could have sang a little sooner and spared the class the agony, but deep down he wondered if the strawberry blonde plotted this with the girl.

"You mean for the whole school year," Kouichi corrected, smiling nervously as he eyed the ex-screaming girl.

"Yeah, that sounds better," Takuya laughed, now simply rubbing his ears. When watching the teacher continue in his lesson about the depth and meaning song lyrics often portrayed (the brunette was noticing a run in emo ones), he cautiously searched the students surrounding him. Biting his lip, he pulled out a piece of paper from his desk, mahogany eyes narrowing as he began to write a note. He'd just get Kouichi's undying infatuation with Izumi out of the way, he didn't want to hear the other complain for the next few weeks how the other did SO much for him yet he never appreciated any of it. While the raven-haired male was a generally sweet guy, he also had a determined side and he would take any twists or turns necessary to express this. Although if Kouichi ever made the brunette feel guilty and found out, he'd be extremely apologetic so it wasn't a sort of guilt game. It was just a strange way of showing Kouichi wouldn't give up.

Scribbling down every idea that popped into his head, the brunette idly considered all possibilities for Kouichi to 'win' over the girl's heart. He could perform beneath Izumi's window and sing a ballad to her while forcing the brunette to play some musical instrument. Bleh, no. Takuya found that to be much too incredibly corny to really suggest. Plus, if his friend actually liked the idea, funny costumes would follow. Just, NO. Send her a box of chocolates? They say the fastest route to a person's heart is through their stomach. Though Takuya never quite got how that made anatomical sense; sure it made metaphorical sense… but really. The heart came before the stomach, and with all the acid in the latter of the human insides if the two WERE directly connected heart burn would be rather common and far more painful.

Write her sweet poems and songs proclaiming how much Kouichi appreciated her intelligent words and delighted in her beauty? No, Kouichi couldn't write poems worthwhile enough to even read, let alone fall head over heels for. The day Takuya read a poem of his that did anything but make him snicker would be the day… would be the day. Be the day of what? Well it would be the day of something, there. Perhaps draw her something beautiful, even a portrait of Izumi? He sighed, unable to think of anything. All the ideas he had written down weren't good enough. He needed something that would help his friend, but all that was on this paper was trash.

Flowers. His eyes widened, before they settled down allowing his face room to grin. The perfect plan formulated, it was all just right. Noflaws, no errors… it was exactly what they needed. A bouquet of flowers, and a notecard filled with everything Kouichi felt and thought. They'd leave it on her doorstep, and it'd be signed anonymously. Naturally, the blonde's curiousity would get piqued - she'd want to know who doted over her to such an extent to buy her nice flowers and reveal what was in their heart. The girl would want to meet such a sentimental and caring individual, as most guys let their pride get in the way.

But Kouichi wasn't like that, and he wouldn't lie to his crush… not even in a card without his signature or name. Every gentle word was just as honest as the admission of love he felt so strongly for Izumi, not a shadow of negative intentions within sight. He would never hurt her, lie to her, take advantage of her, or pull her into a crowd he felt was unfit. The brunette knew that if Kouichi ever felt he was doing her wrong, he'd break up with her simply explaining he wasn't the one to make her happy and he was sorry for it. Not even in the end, not even if he felt he was losing everything, Kouichi wouldn't lie. That was just the type of nice guy he was no matter what. Perhaps that was precisely why they were friends…

He was a nice young man, always willing to help someone in need. However kindness always came with a price, and in being so generous Kouichi had always been taken advantage of. It wasn't how they became friends, but it was what led to them getting along so well. They became friends simply because Kouichi was a shy person, and the brunette was excessively friendly and demanded that the quiet kid talk to him. It couldn't be helped, Takuya just wanted everyone to like and accept him. With a high self-esteem, a good nature, athletic abilities, and likeable personally this wasn't a difficult task. But how those quiet kids gave him trouble, always too shy to talk. He fixed that with Kouichi, though. Now the brunette found the trick was getting him to settle down without using of large intimidating crowds.

When they were first still getting to know each other, the brunette noticed how nearly every kid in the class would ask Kouichi for things and he never said 'no.' Initially he just thought it was because the other child was very nice, but after a month of watching this, it suddenly seemed very wrong. With how the shy child blushed and gave a hopeful look, only to have a rejected expression after they left getting from him what they wanted… it was wrong. That was when Takuya first got Kouichi to talk to him. He was nice, but he was also afraid to be hated. Just like the brunette. No one could hate the brunette, but Kouichi wasn't particularly good with social situations so they could easily turn on him.

Thus the brunette told the raven-haired other that they should just always stick together, and then everything would be just fine. Remarkably, it was… so the two remained the best of friends since. "What's that?" Kouichi whispered, jerking the brunette out of his reverie . Takuya just smiled, and the devious look gained a nervous look in response from the ravenette. "Okay, now I'm not so sure I want to know…" he mumbled, face uncertain.

"It's your ticket to the lovely lady's heart, and it's the best idea I have to offer you in return for Kingdom Hearts II," Takuya explained with his cocky grin. "I'll explain it to you later, and we'll work on the details when we get there."

---

It was a week later, all the crinkles in the brunette's master plan ironed out. If Izumi was single, the letter and flowers would spark a natural curiosity. However if she was taken, the blonde girl would have a somber expression as she realized she was going to have to hurt someone's feelings by rejecting them—unless she was some sort of sadist. But the brunette found it highly unlikely that Kouichi would fall for a girl like that. But then, what if Kouichi was secretly a masochist? Well, he never did fight back when Takuya tried to get him to play-fight when they were younger. He turned to the other as they walked, eyes inquisitive. Kouichi was wearing a maroon shirt with blue sleeves and collar, a different pair of denim blue shorts on that reached his knees to fit the warm weather. Rather than flipflops, he had on a pair of sneakers because of earlier that day Takuya forced him to play a game of soccer with some other teenage boys, as usual. Surprisingly the other didn't put much effort into it. Actually, that sentence was sarcasm and the brunette sweat-dropped when Kouichi performed his trademark of 'let us walk after that ball' when on the field. Just like all the other times, Takuya gave in and let the other spend most of the game doing something else.

Though this time Kouichi spent the time writing the note in pencil, and only until he finished with it did he write over it in pen to etch his words there forever. Still looking the other over curiously, the brunette's lips formed a thin line as he continued to ponder the mannerisms his friend expressed. A masochist, hmm? Pale skin, yet bright thoughtful blue eyes. Black hair so dark it would make any goth-poser envy him, cut short to just below his chin and more evened out now that it was properly combed. No bruises or cuts adorned his skin. Loose bangs tucked behind his ears, Kouichi looked over at the other, confused. "Something wrong?"

"Oh no, nothing's wrong. Just wondering if my dear sweet friend is secretly a masochist in love with a sadistical dominatrix," came the simple explanation, Takuya still looking over his friend. Meanwhile, said friend stopped to just gawk in shock.

"Wh-what gave you that idea?" Kouichi squeaked, face progressively turning several shades of pink. His stutter and blush wasn't unnoticed, and the brunette grinned at his friend's embarrassment.

"Nothing really, just a idle idea that strayed away from someone else's train of thought that chugged on through," Takuya joked, reaching over to ruffle the other's hair.

"H-hey! That's n-not funny!" Kouichi gave another squeak as he spoke, darting under and away from the other's tanned hand. Getting a few extra feet between them, the ravenette pouted over at his old friend, who was wearing a green shirt on with an emerald dragon curled up around a small, red, anthro-looking appearing creature. The ravenette recognize the shirt, the two once bickered about if it was only appropriate to wear during the holidays. He wore an old pair of shorts, this evident by the holes and threads dangling from the frayed edges. The cleats Takuya wore were how Kouichi could tell if it was a day he'd be forced to participate in soccer or not.

"Sure it is! Especially because your reaction can almost be considered evidence..." Takuya moved in close, resting two fingers thoughtfully on his chin. The paler of the two stared at him, mortified still he'd even consider such a thing, and moreso disturbed that the brunette was actually continuing the joke. Getting an idea he took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down before smiling. That made Takuya hesitate, confused.

"Well perhaps I am a masochist..." Kouichi offered a smug smile that broke into a grin seeing his friend flinch. "It would explain why I hang out with a friend who is such a sadist to me." With that said, he briskly walked ahead with a smirk still adorning his face at a victory he rarely saw. Which was a lie, he often saw victories because Takuya understood him well enough that even in his shyer moments he could come out on top. Oh yeah, he was so totally cool.

"Hey now - it's the love," Takuya snapped before hurrying after the other. His comeback was nowhere near as good as Kouichi's and he knew it, that's what drove him to say something – anything - as he tried to redeem his hurting pride. The pride that got damaged every two point five seconds with exception of him sleeping. But still!

"We going to the flower shop, or what?" Kouichi sighed impatiently, motioning Takuya on.

"Sheesh, mood swing much?" Takuya grouched as he hurried after his friend with a disgruntled look. He didn't complain though - after all, Kouichi had the biggest crush on Izumi since he laid eyes on her. It was cute though, the shy boy he knew was slowly maturing into an adult before his very eyes. Sometimes he (Takuya) wondered if he saw the ravenette as more of a child than a friend when thoughts like that crossed his mind, but he never pursued it. Regardless of how he viewed his friend, the other would remain by his side - after all, that was what friends were for. Glancing over at Kouichi he tilted his head with a thoughtful look on his face, and then smiled again.

"Okay, now what are you thinking?" Kouichi sighed, hanging his head in silent defeat despite winning battle after battle with the other. There was just no use in winning the war, his patience unfortunately never lasted long enough for him to do so. The brunette gave a simple shrug as he continued to smile, only to burst out laughing after the other threw his hands up in the air to signify another loss. "I give up! I'm asking the flower girl at the shop to help me pick out the flowers, you are completely useless."

"Now now, that's not true," came the brunette's tsking as he waggled his right index finger about as though to scold the other. "You wouldn't be able to walk to the shop on your own firstly, and secondly you'd be stammering for hours that you want to get pretty flowers for a pretty girl before the lady finally understands you," he scoffed, and automatically Kouichi turned several shades of pink again with the inevitable truth spoken openly. It was true, though. "It's a good thing--"

"Thanks for reminding me," Kouichi whispered to the brunette. Blinking at both the interuption and his words Takuya quickly felt worry rise that he had upset the other in saying that and looked at him. Rather than offended, the other was giving him a grateful smile. "You must either really like that game or those hormones are finally kicking in." The brunette, needless to say, was at a total loss of words. Instead of replying, he returned the sentimental look of true gratitude. The two walked in silence the rest of the way, each lost in his thoughts. The sun was beginning a slow descent into the horizon, a deep sky blue directly overhead with cotton candy pink clouds puffy and sporadically placed high above. Near the edge a crystalline blue was fading into an almost white, the pale pink atmospheric condensation blending with the soft hue of colour. The two teens gazed silently, appreciatively, at the sky. After the quiet slow descent into sunset, they entered the flower shop that would plant the seed - only after they left would they choose how to care for the bud until it bloomed.

* * *

**A/N:** (_Dusts account off_) Hmm? Me? Live? Who has been spreading lies? Really know, you should all know better than to believe such hogwash. (_Scoffs_) Where is this going? (_Grins_) You'll just have to wait and see, my lovelies...


	2. My Loss, His Gain

_The energy spilling on the wall as though it is all that remains, do you remember your hopes? The beats that once sounded, do you recall your own feelings? The ceiling is the wall, as the floor is the sky… do you even know what you are? Is it possible your emotions do not make you, but instead turn into a shell you hide within? Poor child, a cheap imitation of life because you love. _

* * *

Entering the shop they looked around curiously, blue and mahogany eyes intent on finding just the right flowers with which to complete their mission. What kind of flowers would make Izumi happiest? At the counter a lone woman glanced up before tilting her head at them. Seeing the two a smile spread forth from her petal pink lips, satin and without a crinkle in them - perfectly smooth in appearance. Thick green dreadlocks of hair fell about her shoulders and reached her shoulder blades, one unusual rose tucked behind her right ear with every other petal a gold shade. She wore a plain pink dress that reached to her thighs, and over it was a white apron with four gold wire stems with fake leaves intertwining on it. She had on a pair of glasses that made her brown eyes appear larger than average, and the lighting of the shop made them almost a black colour, nearly eradicating the pupil's visibility. The pair of earthy green boots that went up to her knees and their painted yellow flowers at the top were made of the same rubber the gloves she wore, as well as being the same colour and design. Giving a light bow at her new customers she turned to look at them, all the while a kind smile kept her face as bright as the dandelions next to her. "Good evening, may I help you?" she inquired politely. Pinned to her shirt, just barely visible due to the apron, was a name tag that read, 'Yuri.' How... fitting.

"Err, y-yes..." Kouichi stammered, immediately looking down upon his attempt to answer fully. He couldn't stare the woman in the eye, one of the reasons was obvious - he was shy. The second was that she wore so much pink and all her colours matched that she almost reminded him of Mimi, whom he had always seen hang out with Izumi...

"My friend here is trying to tell this girl he likes how he feels, and we really need help picking out flowers for her. You know, something that'll match his words," Takuya explained as he scratched the back of his head nervously and laughing softly.

"Something that'll match his words?" Yuri tilted her head, smile going away briefly as she became slightly unsure of what that meant. She gasped before clapping her hands together, startling both teenage boys as she laughed herself. "Yes yes, flowers with meaning! All right. So tell me, how do you feel about this lucky young woman?" the woman inquired.

"I... err, well that is..." Kouichi stumbled over his words, taking his sentence from one direction to an entirely new and different one. All the while, the woman who worked at the flower shop listened intently, still smiling earnestly with her hands clasped together over her heart the entire time she listened. She looked hopeful, half as if she was thinking it was she they were referring to.

"Give her the note if you can't say it," Takuya whispered before gently nudging his friend in the ribs with his elbow. Squeaking at the ticklish spot being poked, the ravenette hurried over to the woman before thrusting the note into her hands, his face so red it matched the roses right by him. Wonder if there were sunflowers the size of Takuya's smile of amusement right now beside him? Nope. No such continued coincidences.

"All right, let's see here..." she murmured, unfolding the note. Her peaceful visage slowly turned to that of contemplative. Adjusting her glasses she peered at the paper, going over the words and every few seconds she'd glance around the store curiously. Each time blue and mahogany eyes would follow where hers trailed, silently wondering if she was staring at the brilliant blue violets, the soft textured irises, or mayhap even the enchanting white acacias. Then when her eyes traveled elsewhere on the store, they were startled to see grapevines coiling all along the walls followed by several hauntingly blue and crimson anenomes, and bright purple French willows. The third time and last time she looked up was right past them, causing the two teens to swirl around and stare at the various vases of purple lilacs, white lilies, and many-coloured oleanders that made her frown. No, it wasn't the flowers... Glancing up, the teens saw two strange men and one unusual woman. All three wore black suits and glasses, and hats on their heads that shadowed their faces in the shop and setting sun in the background. A deep burning red of the lowering orb shone through, shadows rising slowly from its position. The woman had long white hair to her waist, skin so frighteningly pale that the red from the sky seemed to be her very own skin. She stood between the two males, her purple lips almost mocking of frostbite and devoid of any hint of what she thought or felt. The man on her right side had bandages wrapped around his neck, looking so tight that Takuya and Kouichi had to wonder if he was silently being strangled to death by it. A few more bandages wrapped around his right eye, which made the glasses on him almost redundant. The third and tallest man on the woman's left had platinum blonde bangs protruding from beneath his hat and skin equally pale as the woman's - his lips had the same frostbitten appearance as well. They stood in an ideal line and perfectly erect.

"You..." Yuri whispered, eyes widening in fear as she took a slow step back. Releasing her grip on the paper rather than tightening it, the piece fell from her hands and fluttered down to the floor. The three people merely stared at her, but the woman's head slowly began to move down, glancing at the two teens who stared at them with confused expressions that mirrored each other. Silently gazing at them briefly until she sighed, she pulled out a glimmering gun... or at least, that's what it looked like. Just what type it was or its country of origin neither teen knew, as they had never seen such a device on television or in books.

"We've come here to rob you, hand over the money and no one gets hurt." This new woman spoke with a demanding tone, her articulation not once wavering. She was calculating and straight to the point, not a hint of fear or insecurity about the act she was committing. "You two." She motioned to the teenagers. "Go into the backroom and stay there. You," without her gun ever leaving the two males that stood flabbergasted at her blunt manners, her head turned in the slightest to Yuri. Her gaze could still be felt regardless of the head altering its position. "Stay out here. You're the one we want for this." The girl glanced over to the two teens and bit her lower lip, and then nodded before scurrying over to the counter.

"No, he stays," the man with bandages stated in a raspy voice. To clarify which 'he' was being referred to, he pointed at Kouichi. Blue eyes widened in horror, almost as if a new understanding came to him. The brunette, however, did not have the faintest idea as to what was going on. The woman turned to the bandaged one as though challenging his decision, but the blonde haired man moved over to whisper something into her ear. Her lips parted, a thoughtful look coming over her. She turned back to the two teenagers standing in front of her own trio. "A hostage," came the brief explanation. A pale hand gripped a tan one, clasping over it tightly.

"Do as they say," Kouichi whispered quietly, his eyes wide. He stared ahead at the three figures, now more of silhouettes than people. He slowly let go of the other's hand before offering a warm smile. "I'll be fine, promise. Just go back there, okay? I don't want you to get hurt." In all the years they had known each other, with every passing event that smashed into the pair of friends, not once had Kouichi done or said something so brave, so fearlessly. The brunette had trouble to not stare at his friend, eyes widening at this unexpected turn. The red was almost taking over the room, black shadows flitting about. The only person visible to mahogany eyes was a friend; an old friend, being slowly washed in red light.

"N-no," Now it was his turn to stammer.

"Takuya, please..." Begging motions, reds turning to shadows.

"I'll count to three." The woman readied her weapon, a clicking sound following it.

"Here, I'll take you to the back. It'll be all right." Yuri put a gloved hand on his shoulder; he wouldn't budge.

"I'm not leaving Kouichi here!" A hiss, clasping a hand over something warm and familiar - a friend.

"One." A white acacia, friendship in the hand.

"It's okay, they're just using me as a hostage..." Soothing words masking a darker undertone.

"Listen to your friend." Twisted words from a man hidden beneath writhing bandages.

"But--" A protest to never let go.

"Two." Crimson anenomes, claiming otherwise.

"C'mere, I'm sick of this." Blonde hair swaying as he reached forward to snatch what they wanted.

"Just wait, we'll put him in the back!" A lily on the water, fighting against the current.

"Wait--" Eyes widening in fear.

"Let go of him!" Ruby eyes shining as brightly as the untainted bravery to protect what was most important.

"Three." Colourful oleanders of warning, splattered in a colour that remained the same in the red setting sun as its whispers remained unheeded. Aside from the ringing that remained long after the fire came hurtling forward to a target it missed, there was nothing but a horrific silence. Black eyes widened in fear, the three robbers recoiling instantly at their mistake. All at once sound resumed, boots stampeding as the two men and one woman raced out of the store - gone. Yuri rushed to her counter, knocking over several vases and cases as she did so before reaching under and smashing down on a button - summoning. In all the fragmented moments only two shadows were on the floor. One was kneeling, and the other bleeding.

"...Kouichi?" Takuya whispered, a shaky tan hand reaching down to touch black hair turned red. "Kouichi..." He whispered, clenching a pale hand that gave no returning squeeze as he still clasped it tightly. He was dead.

* * *

It was a month since the failed robbery, and three weeks had passed now after the funeral of Kouichi Minamoto. A few days ago, after finally working up the nerve, Takuya explained to Izumi how much his friend had cared for her - she had cried - but he left out the reason why they were at the flower shop was because they wanted to get her a bouquet. No reason for her to feel blamed, after all... it was his fault to suggest something so ridiculous. It was his fault he didn't listen. It was his fault... that Kouichi pushed him out of the way... and in the end, he still had to let go of that hand. Lying on his bed, he stared up blankly at his ceiling with a vacant expression. A gray sheet was disheveled beneath him, the matching neutral blanket kicked to the side and hanging off the side of his futon and so was also all over his floor. Barren walls surrounded him, portraits and sketches all drawn by his close friend cautiously taken down before being put away for safe keeping - to hide away the fresh memories that burned with guilt and accusing eyes that his friend had drawn without knowing. Little holes littered the walls where they used to be pinned, most on the side where he currently lay. The pillow tucked beneath his head was a plain white, the case still in the dryer with the others. A dirty wooden floor half-covered in papers with scribbles of apologies was empty as well, its usual covering of clothes actually put away where they belonged. Without a friend to hang out with, he had nothing better to do than clean his room up. With no Kouichi to laugh at as he dragged a disgruntled artist to play soccer, the game suddenly seemed so pointless. A television sat patiently in a corner, a game console attached but starting to gather dust due to lack of usage and care. It was just another reminder that he didn't have someone to watch him play games as they doodled the craziest possible pairings they could conjure, laughing all the while at how deranged some became.

A controller was wrapped up on top of it, the second one tucked gently beneath the entertainment center that supported the electronic device that relinquished the scenery from the games. Plastic cases protecting the discs of movies and video games sat idly, waiting for the day they'd be shared by two souls close enough to see even the most demented of a film and come out laughing by the end. All to feel safe, all to know they weren't alone in their fear. The hard surface of the support was a maroon colour, its close relations to red almost working as the catalyst for hours of tape-looping, the last moments of his friend's life playing over and over nonstop, the horrific scene always as fresh as the moment it happened. Perhaps it was happening, over and over again with Takuya merely thinking it already happened. By where the television sat was a small desk, the pencils all gathered into a singular cup with pens inside a paper plate besides it. A black laptop littered in stickers of various images lay quiet, it's cord set next to it and the charge all gone. After two weeks he had given up finding any reports on the internet regarding the three robbers - not even any information on them as citizens could be found. It was as though they were there just to kill Kouichi, and then ceased to exist. No name, no thought, no nothing beyond that singular event.

Since that day, not once had Takuya gone anywhere near the flower shop. Yuri had told the officers everything she had seen and assured them of all the events, and then he was also questioned. The police didn't outwardly scold him, but he could get the basic underlying meaning in their words - you should have listened, otherwise your friend wouldn't be dead. The guilt was eating away at him, and the unexplained continued to haunt him. Why did Kouichi and Yuri look as though they recognized these people? Why was it that he was excluded from all this? Giving a dismayed sigh Takuya rolled onto his stomach as he stared ahead at his empty red wall - mocking him. Why was his favorite colour red? It was sick, liking the same colour as the fluid that pulsed through your veins. Disgusting. No wonder he was so stupid to not listen, he was sick. Twisted. An inexcusable existence that was the downfall of those close to him... Scrunching his eyes closed the brunette quickly clutched the uncovered pillow close to him. Why did Kouichi have to jump in the way for him? _He_ was the protector, not Kouichi! It wasn't right...

"Takuya, phone call!" His mother hollered up at the teen. Burrowing his face deeper into the soft pillow he sighed. He didn't have it in him to answer. Rubbing his watering eyes on the fabric of his sole comfort at this point, he dragged himself out of bed before going downstairs to answer. Taking the phone from her he put it on his ear, face clearly showing there wasn't enough heart in him at the moment to force out emotion or fake cheerfulness.

"What?" came his inquiry, devoid of any care.

"Hello Kanbara-san, this is Wolf speaking. I was just calling to let you know that your clone is complete."

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon. I never have, and never will. The entirety of this fanfiction is merely that - a fan-made piece of fictional prose with no other intent that to amuse. None of these characters are mine, with exception to one or two of my trade-mark OCs who tend to appear for comic relief.  
**A/N:** Yeah, you THOUGHT Yuri was a mary-sue... now what? Also, I am aware that Kouichi's real last name is Kimura, however for story reasons I changed it to Minamoto.


	3. His Birth, My Nightmare

_Translucent with shells embedded within, the mirror lies about his nightmares. They are not real, even if the scars remain. It's just a religion, no more than a hidden desire to suffer. He cannot sense what you do, but regardless that burn is still there. The emotions aren't real, but the ache still resounds without fading. How do you feel if you are someone else?_

* * *

"Hello Kanbara-san, this is Wolf speaking. I was just calling to let you know that your clone is complete." The voice was deep and gruff, but behind it there was a calm gentleness. Silence. Crackling of the line, parted lips had no response. He didn't understand. "Perhaps you didn't hear me... Kanbara-san, this is Wolf speaking. The clone you ordered a while back is completed, I would appreciate if you came by some time later today to pick him up." Slightly impatient, but still understanding as though yet again this stranger knew something he didn't. Takuya narrowed his eyes, gritting his teeth in annoyance at this mysterious caller.

"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong house... I never ordered a 'clone.' Sorry." It was a sick joke, the brunette thought before roughly tearing the phone from his ears and glaring at the device. It was someone's idea of some twisted joke.

"Wait Kanbara-san - don't hang up. Even if you hold no recollection of ordering it, all the forms here say Kanbara Takuya. Age sixteen, member of the soccer team-"

"Ex-member..."

"...I'm sorry. You must have left the team after ordering then, for this states you were apart of it." Wolf apologized, and through the crackling quiet of the phone a shuffling of papers could be heard as well as the scratching of a pen against them. Curiosity getting the better of him, the brunette put the phone back on his ear and leaned against the white wall of the kitchen. His eyes looked down, thoughts rustling through his mind as his eyes traveled through the familiar room where his father cooked. Often his mother was too busy with work to make them anything to eat, so their dad took over in that area. On the right side of the wall sat the stove and refrigerator, simply there as the items relaxed for they lacked any use for the time being. Hanging over the stove was a lamp, glass curling around it as a gilded gold chain held it up securely. The wall across from him had two large portraits, one of his family after his younger brother Shinya had been born and the second of Kouichi's own decision to paint his favorite family. A bitter smile came, brows furrowing at the memory. How long had his friend forced them to stand in place? How many times was he scolded by everyone for sticking his tongue out...? Sighing, he looked away to the doorway opposite to him as he stood leaning on one side.

"For what purpose do you need information about me and some soccer team?" Takuya sighed. If Kouichi ever heard him say that, he'd go on for hours how the end of the world was coming. He grimaced, and then began shaking his head to clear away the haunting memories that kept coming back. They wouldn't stay away, not even when some perverted joke was being played on him. Yet with how this 'Wolf' spoke, he sounded completely serious. Either he wasn't kidding, or this was an amazing actor.

"I don't. You just included it in an e-mail you sent me. You filled it with all kinds of useless information regarding yourself, I couldn't tell you why. I was hoping you'd explain it." Wolf told him, voice somewhat confused as well now. This was getting interesting._ 'Useless, hmm?_' The brunette thought with a raised brow. Repositioning himself against the door way, he crossed his arms after situating the phone between his head and shoulders to stay there of it's own accord.

"Such as...?" Takuya asked, his interest caught. _This should be intriguing_, he figured.

"Your favorite colour is red, when you were seven you stole your best friend's bouncy ball-"

"I DID NO SUCH THING!"

"-you have the highest success rate at your school for shooting goals in soccer, you have a fear of mutant animals taking over the world, even though you say otherwise you're convinced aliens abducted your real mother when you were six and replaced her with a work zombie-"

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!"

"You did, Kanbara-san." Wolf answered simply, not missing a beat and holding no intention whatsoever to insult. A moment, and then...

"Oh, err... continue." Takuya sighed, massaging his head while mumbling how this didn't make any sense at all.

"You hate hospitals, the idea of ever losing usage of your limbs frightens you and there was a year where all you did was suffer nightmares from it to the point you needed to see a therapist, your favorite show is Serial Experiments Lain, there was a time you were so afraid of spiders one chased you around your room, and the only time you are incapable of being brave is when there is nothing for you to protect." Wolf finally finished and more ruffling of papers could be heard through the phone.

"...but... I never sent any of that." Takuya murmured, not even denying what the other had just said. Pulling one hand up he massaged the side of his head mildly confused again, eyes glancing up as though the other side of the doorframe provided an appropriate answer for him. Nothing.

"Well, if that's what you truly believe then I'll look into who may have sent it. Is all this information personal, or is it very general?" Wolf inquired, more papers heard in the background.

"Some is general, but others are a bit more... personal." Takuya ended, chewing on his lower lip. What did this mean? He took in a shaky breath, and began to twirl his fingers around in the phone's cord. He didn't understand any of this. Who could have sent it? He didn't even think human cloning was possible yet, let alone available for purchasing. That aside, what psycho would order a human being? It was... well, simply put against his morals.

"I see. Anyone who would know all this?" The papers ceased their movements, placed wherever it was their handler wanted them to go.

"...no." No one alive, he added in his thoughts as the sinking feeling within his stomach returned thinking back.

"Strange. Regardless, I will see what I can do. At any rate, I do need you to pick up your clone today even if you didn't order him. At least let him stay with you until we find the person who asked for him, it'd be a great favor for all of us."

"All of us?" Takuya asked, unknowingly cutting in before Wolf could go on to say something else.

"Yes -- my co-workers and I. We live here, and there's no room for an extra person so it's a bit cramped currently." The deep voice on the other line explained.

"Okay... what do I tell my parents though when I come home with a replica of myself?" Takuya inquired, moving his hand back down for his arms to be crossed once more as his brows furrowed. He could just see it - two of him come home and both his parents suffer a fatal heart attack. There were several occasions they stated one of him was more than enough, what would they do if there really were two of him?

"Yourself? So you really didn't order this one then..." Wolf murmured, his voice trailing off.

"What's that mean?" Takuya demanded, his insides clenching.

"This will be incredibly awkward for you both then... please, just let me give you the directions here. No staring at him, no rude behavior, and act as though you two honestly just met. All right? Do you understand me?" A calm voice, it almost reminded Takuya of how the police spoke to him. Matter-of-factly, and full of assurance to keep the citizen calm at all costs. Panicking wouldn't do any good. Taking a deep breath to force down that lump of dread welling inside the brunette nodded. He yelped however when the unnecessary movement was given, the phone falling out of the crevice between his face and shoulder and his arms flew out to catch it. Fumbling with it around for a second, he quickly pressed it to his ear with one finger from earlier coiling still wrapped up in the cord.

"S-sorry. Okay, I understand. What are the directions?" This day was way to stressful for a Saturday.

* * *

Wearing a red short-sleeve shirt displaying yellow streaks in the circular formation of the sun and umber brown capris he searched through the gray streets trying to locate the address. Skies were overcast, the threat of rain hovering above but never fulfilling itself. He had on his goggles and hat, though it was pulled forward where it was intended to cover his eyes. The area was worn-down and old, almost foreboding with the wire fences rising high between building to prevent alleyway access. A clanking of garbage cans falling over made the brunette jump with paranoia, prickling hairs rising up on his neck with goosebumps following. That was twice now an animal had knocked those down, but not once had he seen a sign of life leaving the scene. Not even a sound made. It was eerie and the sky wasn't helping; parts of him felt that by accident he walked onto the set of a horror film touched with some reality television. Teeth chattering despite how warm the air was, he hugged himself as the search continued.

Stopping he tilted his head at a stone building, the right side slowly crumbling but the rest remained fairly intact with the multitudes of holes set aside. He couldn't help but wonder if this side of the city was assaulted with acid rain, that was the only explanation for the rapidly eroding site. Creeping up to the rotting wood door he peered through one of the crevices, curiosity getting the better of him. Seeing nothing but a black interior with dusty furniture he took a step back and looked to the address. 8876. This was it.

Biting his lower lip he pushed the door open, the touch itself making it creak as it left the frame and with him entered the house. Unlike him though, it was hinged and could go no further. Putting down one red sneakered foot onto the cool cemented floor, mahogany eyes blinked rapidly in the weakly lit room. Open door aside, there were no lights and the teenager was the only sign of life. Frowning his heart began to beat faster, starting to be afraid this was all seriously a cruel joke. But then, how did that Wolf man know about his arachnophobia? The limb thing? ...the bouncy ball joke? A sensation that something sinister was happening resulted in his mind flying back to that horrific day. Was it those three? Did they trick him into coming here to finish what they started? A small squeak of fear came, his eyes darted around in desperation to find something - anything. Steps, loud and with a destination in mind. Whoever was walking was coming from beneath him. Eyes widening as he felt a slab of cement shift beneath him Takuya quickly darted out of the way. His weight no longer inhibiting whomever it was trying to get up and out, it was lifted and pushed aside. A bob of dirty blonde hair came up, the fear returning. They were back to get him.

"Ah, there we are." A female voice sighed. Wait, female? Blinking, Takuya peeked closer. The owner turned around before she jumped, staring at him with a startled expression. "Oh... hello there. You must be Takuya." She greeted as she gave him a warm smile, soft brown eyes twinkling at him. Hands on both sides of the hole the woman hoisted herself up with a strained face as she exerted effort to get up out of it. Setting her bottom on the floor she lifted up her legs next and then twirled around in a circle to face the brunette and be out of the hole. Standing up now she dusted the grime gathered on her from moving from beneath the floor to on it off her white lab coat. Large silver buttons were clasped from her high neck collar that covered the bottom portion of her chin down to her knees, long sleeves reaching to her wrists where they were cuffed. She looked to be somewhere in her early-to-mid twenties, hair curled slightly above her shoulders.

"Y-yes." Takuya stammered, finding himself gawking at this woman. She must have been one of the co-workers that Wolf had spoken about.

"Right. I'm Onodera Tally, but just call me Tally-chan." She chirped giving him a thumbs up, which then extended to an offered handshake. "Come on, can't keep everyone waiting for too long, now can we?" She inquired. He stared at her, but then took the hand. "Right, follow me." She nodded as they shook hands, and then just as much caution she took to come out she worked with equally to get back down. Once she was down she assisted the brunette to get down. After each reached the lower level, Tally reached up to pull the slab back into it's place, securing it before nodding and turning back to the brunette with a smile. He stared at her. "What?" She asked with a tilt of her head. Now both standing side by side she was slightly taller than the brunette which made him then quirk a brow. "W-what?" She again inquired, becoming somewhat self-conscious at his gaze. Shifting from foot to foot she looked about, trying to find some just cause as to why he was just looking at her.

"It's nothing..." Takuya sighed as he turned around. A narrow hallway with torches lighting the way, the stone walls were blue and the ground beneath their feet was dirt-covered, not paved. At the end of the hall was a gray metal door with no handle. That really made him raise a brow.

"Well then, if it's nothing... on we go!" Tally chirped, leading the way once more. The two went in silence, the brunette looking around at the strange design of this building. For such a sophisticated science why did they live in such a dreary place? Was cloning against everyone's morals, just as it went against his? No other explanation offered... "Uhm, if you don't mind my asking..." The woman began when they reached the door, trailing as she waited for the go ahead or denial of her question.

"Yeah? Ask whatever you want." Takuya shrugged.

"How did you... find this place? I mean as in, _find_ it... I know you didn't order it - the clone. Oh, this isn't making sense..." Tally mumbled to herself, and then reached up to knock on the door.

"I followed the directions here, how else?" Takuya laughed as he gave the simple answer, but Tally didn't look as amused. More so, she appeared confused. There it was again, he didn't know something everyone else around him did...

"Whose there?" The gruff voice of Wolf asked on the other side, crackling still accompanying his words. An intercom.

"Tally-chan and Kanbara-san." The dirty-blonde woman smiled to the voice, but as the brunette inspected the door he saw no traces of an intercom. But Wolf's voice **couldn't** be heard through a steel door like that... unless it was rally thin. But it looked thick! And why was Tally suddenly switching to speaking formally of him?

"Oh. Hold on a moment, let me get these two to settle it down..." Wolf laughed, and clanging was heard as well as clinks as though a clock was fast-forwarding.

"Are those two arguing again? Really Wolf, I told you it was a bad idea to send me out instead of Sorcerer to get Kanbara-san. He just won't stop arguing with him!" Tally scowled, throwing her arms up in the air as the door began to rise slowly.

"It's merely their opposing views." Wolf laughed, the crackling now gone as he could be heard without the invisible intercom.

"I know, but still. They could at least take a break for our sakes." Tally shook her head, all during this conversation Takuya just became progressively more lost. What? Did these people, excusing the only woman, all use codenames? Perhaps he got caught up in an illegal operation...?

"He started it." A new voice shouted, older than the other two with a slight rasp. This new person was also male, but he sounded rather irritated with something. Quite obviously the other consistently referred to was the cause of this all...

"Now now, save the bickering. I'm sure we'll have more of that in a moment." Tally scolded the new voice, waving her finger to and fro.

"What do you mean?" Takuya asked curiously.

"Oh you'll see, the second he woke up he's done nothing but make trouble." She snorted, and then ducked under the door now three-fourths open. Confused, the brunette walked in with that sense of dread once more. Entering the room his eyes widened in shock. Computers were splayed all over the floor, one wall covered entirely in a monitor screen with unusual letters on it. Arabic? He didn't know. Cords were strung all over the place, blue lights flickering through unseen wires running around wildly on the corners that wall and ceiling met. Fluorescent lights filtered down, unlike the rest of the building perfectly well lit to the point the brunette had to keep blinking his eyes to get adjusted to it. On another wall were large tubes filled with green liquids, swirling around in a lava lamp fashion. Still amazed he gazed around silently, Tally softly chuckling under her breath at his wonder. She walked over to where a swivel chair was, a man sitting in it with a laptop in his lap that he typed furiously away on. He had bushy blonde hair to his shoulders, bright and almost like the lights above in its intensity. He wore a steel blue shirt that mildly reminded Takuya of a long-sleeved nurses shirt, a queasy feeling following the thought of a hospital. He had on a pair of loose white pants, showing these people had some sort of white fetish that was starting to really annoy him. Couldn't they use a little more colour, and a bit less shade? Tally whispered something in his ear and he blinked, turning around to look at Takuya with bright red eyes. He stared back. The man appeared around twenty-three, and gave him a wolfish grin. He had a feeling who this was already.

"Welcome, Kanbara-san. I'm Wolf." He introduced himself, standing up and giving a gentle courteous bow. "It's nice to meet you in person. I'm sorry, but there's still no information regarding who started all of this." He apologized, giving a somber look. The brunette sighed but merely waved it off, his eyes now moving away to continue his inspection of the place. "However, I'm very glad to see you found your way here safely."

"Uhm, thanks..." Takuya mumbled, walking through the room while keeping an eye on the cords threatening to trip him as he walked. Walking out of a room he had not noticed before (it melded with the shadows to the point the brunette was slightly freaked out that this man came from nowhere seemingly) was the third voice. He was a squat man, shorter than Wolf even as he sat down in his chair. He had long straw yellow hair down to his knees, the lower hair tied together. Ice blue eyes looked around, pale skin almost a pasty blue appearance was mostly hidden beneath a mask over his mouth and chin with a large white hat atop his head... almost like a wizard of some sort. He had on a white nurses outfit, an unsettling feeling overcoming the brunette. He didn't like how most of these people dressed.

"I'm sorry I give 'normal' people the benefit of the doubt..." The man with the raspy voice mocked, rolling his eyes in the direction of the room.

"Still giving you a hard time Sorcerer?" Tally asked, walking over to place a friendly hand on the shorter man's shoulder.

"You wouldn't believe." Sorcerer snorted, moving over to pick up a clipboard. He had on a pair of brown gloves, a few fingers wearing rings. How odd...

"Uhm, who is?" Takuya asked finally, tiring of being left out of the loop. Even if these were all co-workers, he didn't appreciate being told to come by and pick someone up only to be ignored due to idle chatter.

"Oh, sorry." Tally laughed nervously realizing how rude they had been. She reached back, giving a lopsided smile as though that would excuse her behavior.

"His name is Kouji." Wolf sighed, closing his laptop realizing he couldn't count on the other two. Standing up he placed it down and mahogany eyes widened at him. Wolf was taller than any of them, at least by a foot. And that name...

"Kouji?" Takuya blinked.

"Yes. Whoever it was claiming to be you requested for a clone of Kouichi." Wolf was quiet as he spoke, obviously half expecting a moral outrage from the brunette. All he got though, was a horrified silence. "..." The man wasn't sure what to say or do now, at least if he got some sort of angry response he'd know what to do.

"Uhm... yes, he prefers to be called Kouji because... he doesn't want to be... compared to his predecessor. Please don't compare the two, it's rather cruel." Tally explained, trying to give her best smile to the mortified Takuya who merely stared between her and Wolf.

"Y-you cloned Kouichi?" Takuya whispered hoarsely, eyes as wide as they could possibly get.

"Obviously if they called you and said, 'We have your clone ready.'" Came a new and sarcastic voice, slightly familiar but deeper. Takuya was frozen; he didn't want to see.

"Kouji! Stop being so insensitive." Tally hissed. "He doesn't have to take home what he didn't ask for you know!" She added before sticking out her tongue.

"Who said I wanted to?" The clone, or Kouji, retorted. "Besides, whose to say he isn't lying to you about that?" He scoffed as an after-thought.

"And now he argues with you." Sorcerer chuckled beneath his breath, writing away on the clipboard. Reaching over he grabbed a cordless phone on a desk, papers covering it and some even poking out of the drawers. Picking it up, he began to dial numbers as he called someone. That explained all those papers... even so, he'd look anywhere but in the direction of that one voice.

"Besides, why are you going around and telling people not to compare a clone to the original DNA they came from, eh? Isn't that the point of making one?" Came Kouji's rather begrudging input.

"Please hold your tongue for a moment, Kouji." Wolf sighed rubbing his temples. All this was just falling apart. _'At this rate Kanbara-san certainly won't take him in_,' The tall man thought with a shake of his head. Their reasons for wanting to get rid of their… extra person seemingly went beyond not having the space.

"Why? Need it for a DNA sample so you can have a clone of a clone?" Kouji asked in a mocking tone. Thankfully though, he was quiet for the moment.

"Not even if you paid us to." Sorcerer snapped, leaving his phone conversation long enough to glare at the clone.

"I promise you Kanbara-san, we'll figure out who did this. Until then, I cannot beg you enough to take him back with you. Before now it really was because we have no room, but he's a bit... difficult to work with." Wolf explained, hesitating near the end as he searched for the right word to describe the clone. He got a snort in the background. "I'm sorry to ask all of this of you, but please. Will it be too much trouble?" He inquired, face softening at the brunette. Takuya looked up at Wolf, still refusing to look at this 'Kouji.' How would he explain to his mother a clone of his dead best friend whom he was the reason he died in the first place? It was all so wrong, so horrifically wrong... taking a deep shaky breath he sighed.

"Fine. He can stay at my place..." Takuya murmured. Sure, he'd have to deal with a guy who was a clone of his dead best friend with a major attitude problem and thus the exact opposite of Kouichi… but he just could not say no. Brilliant.

"Thank you!" Tally squealed, literally glomping the surprised brunette.

"My point proven." Kouji murmured.

"Be nice to him. Whether you can see it or not, but that boy is no happier about this than you are. Why I couldn't tell you, but don't push your luck with him... unless you'd rather us ask Kouichi's mother to take you in." Wolf spoke civilly enough, but his threat was enough to get an audible shudder from Kouji. "I'm sure she'll have no qualms treating you as the replacement of her son that you so fervently hate."

"Don't expect anything a saint would do." Kouji grouched, but still giving his agreement.

"From you the thought wouldn't even cross my mind." Sorcerer snorted.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Digimon, nor any characters affiliated with it. However, the plot and my own characters are mine.  
**A/N:** _Stretches. _Another day, another twist... all right. Raise of hands - how many of you saw this coming after chapter two?


	4. My Home, His Prison

_A name without a meaning is no more than a body without need. I am the vitamin C that your body craves while you lay curled up at night. She is the calcium your bones long for as you starve yourself. He is the body fat that makes everyone hate you. Yet after they all lay there in piles of bones and skin… you still remain and laugh. In the end, you were the one who survived thanks to his sacrifice. But still they mock you, because even after it's all over… you are now alone without him._

* * *

Down the streets back to the section of Shibuya that Takuya lived in, Kouji trailed behind him without even trying to come into eyeshot. The clone was mildly amused at how the other refused at all costs to look at him. Although, the closer to the brunette's home they got, the more perturbed he became. A few people stopped in their tracks and stared at the two, one person actually fainting from the initial shock. Kouji knew this was only the beginning of a really lousy life he didn't ask for. Well, the harder they pushed him the more violently he'd push back. When they reached the brunette's home Kouji stopped, tilting his head at it making the brunette cease walking as well. It was a small two-story house, the lawn unevenly cut with weeds sticking up in various areas. The outside paint was old, but still a visible green colour beneath the age. The door was behind a screened one, and in the driveway no cars were visible. It seemed the brunette's parents weren't home... that would delay an awkward situation. "Better than an apartment." Kouji nodded, figuring that would work as being 'nice.'

"If you say so..." Takuya murmured in reply, and then began walking to the front door. The clone watched him, a bit miffed that his try went ignored. Fine, he wouldn't try in that case. Following after the brunette he waited for the door to be opened and they went inside. Takuya took off his shoes and took a step into the living room with a heavy sigh, Kouji following. Peering around, the clone inspected the house. The room they were in was the living room, wide and spacious. The carpet was a royal blue, all the walls a clean white. At least they fixed up the interior... a couch was readily available to be sat upon in the middle of the floor, a large television pressed against the wall with a potted green plant on either side. Several pictures were on the wall, a few painted landscapes and others mere photographs of the family. Walking around to inspect them, Kouji wandered away from the brunette. As much as he wanted to keep an eye on the clone he brought home, Takuya forced himself to not glance in the other's direction. Feeling as though the silence between the two was stifling, he swallowed some excess saliva. Better something than nothing. "Ahm... are... are you hungry?" the brunette asked.

"Are you asking me if I get hungry?" Kouji snapped back, twisting the other's words entirely.

"No... I was asking if you were hungry. It's physically impossible for a human to not ever get hungry," Takuya sighed, walking towards the large doorway to the kitchen where he first spoke to Wolf on the phone.

"So now I'm a human and not a clone?" Kouji asked, his voice almost cruelly amused. The brunette gritted his teeth, looking through the cabinets for a before dinner snack.

"Never said you weren't. But while we're being technical, you **are** both," Takuya growled, finally giving Kouji the reaction he had obviously wanted - some sort of emotion from the avoidant brunette. The clone went to the kitchen, moving so he now stood behind the other.

"I wasn't, that's all you," Kouji pointed out, a grin almost audible in his words. Takuya's eyebrow twitched; he had him on that one.

"Whatever. Do you want something to eat or not?" he asked with irritation, shaking his head as brown hair swayed.

"It would be nice, haven't eaten anything before." Kouji answered simply, for once no malice in his voice. That was an improvement. The brunette sighed, then blinked and tilted his head. He'd never eaten anything before? So, he could speak but not eat. Why not the other way around?

"Right... what would you like to try first?" Takuya asked, sorting through before pulling out various foods simple enough to make.

"Food." Kouji wasn't very social right now.

"Well that's a given," Takuya sighed as he rolled his mahogany eyes, still refusing to turn around and face the other. Noticing this, the clone could be heard crossing his arms.

"Okay you... whatever your name is," Kouji began, his decision to not even try to remember his host's name earning him an annoyed growl. "You can't avoid looking at me forever. Just get it over with, I'm getting sick of you not looking me in the eye. It's incredibly rude and I'd almost you rather entirely ignore me at this point." With this said, he waited for the other to turn around. No such luck. "What? Afraid to see a familiar face?" he sneered. Takuya's eye twitched, half tempted to turn around long enough to punch the clone in the face.

"No, I'd just rather think of you as an annoying voice that only exists within my head that I can choose to believe is a figment of my imagination and is curable with the proper psychiatric help," Takuya snapped, grabbing a bag of chips instead of making them food. He tossed it behind him, half-hoping the other would get hit by it. It collided with a hand, not a face. The brunette dismayed some at his lack of luck.

"Wolf should have told you to be nice to me, not the other way around," Kouji complained under his breath , opening the bag with the usual crinkling sounds.

"Not that you've made any effort..." Takuya mumbled under his breath.

"Hmmph?"

"Just eat your stupid chips," Takuya grouched, rummaging about to find himself a snack as well. A granola bar would suffice.

"Let me guess, this was Kouichi's favorite brand," Kouji scoffed after swallowing the mass he had been scarfing down.

"Kouichi didn't like chips." Takuya sighed, pushing away from the blue kitchen countertop. A pause. "I just should have told him no... What happens when school comes around?" Takuya whispered to himself, eyes closed as he thought and brows furrowed in thought.

"Why can't I stay here?" Kouji suggested, not wanting to deal with that either.

"Because I don't trust you being somewhere alone without any supervision," came the honest and to the point reply. Takuya felt he did indeed have to be this cold to this clone.

"How very kind you are," Kouji growled sarcastically, crunching being heard afterwards as he continued eating. The two chowed down quietly together, neither saying anything. It was a slightly awkward silence, the kind that could only be felt in these kinds of situations. Takuya didn't know what to say to Kouji, and the clone had nothing nice to say to the brunette. Finishing up his bar, the brunette tossed the wrapper into the garbage can without ever having his eyes see anything aside from the other's shadow. That, at least, looked different enough to him that the other wasn't a twin Kouichi had lost long ago. Just as his voice and personality were different... maybe the DNA was scrambled up, much like how a man and woman could have three children together but all of them come out with different appearances. It was possible. Yet that didn't explain the stares they got outside... The bag of chips was thrown away also, but instead of standing idly against the kitchen doorframe as Takuya now did, Kouji showed just how much this avoidance was grating on his nerves. Roughly grabbing the surprised brunette's shoulders, he forced the other to turn around and face him. Mahogany eyes met replica blue eyes, although these were more narrowed with a brooding shadow over them.

"I told you I was sick of you not looking at me." Kouji growled. His face matched Kouichi's perfectly, down to the last pale skin pigment. Midnight black bangs came in his face somewhat, but his hair, unlike his predecessor's, was long and pulled back into a ponytail. He had the same height, body structure, everything. The only differences lay in the voice, longer hair, and facial expressions. He wore a plain dark blue shirt and simple denim blue jeans, and his plain white tennis shoes waited at the door to be used again later. Takuya stared at him, the initial shock of what he was seeing making him freeze, muscles tensing. Waiting for a reaction past this, Kouji just continued to stare back at him. But his eyes were more scrutinizing, almost as though measuring this response. When he still got no greater reaction he just growled, and then roughly pushed the startled brunette away from himself. "And now I'm sick of you staring at me. Can't you look at a person normally?" he growled, crossing his arms in irritation as his eyes narrowed into slits. Takuya just blinked stupidly at him. "...Yeah, you should have just told him no."

At around dinnertime the brunette's father had come home before starting on their food, Takuya hiding an insulted Kouji to his room. True, he couldn't hide the clone forever. But he wanted to postpone this as long as possible and feared all the possibilities that would ensue. What if his parents didn't believe him? They'd think he lost it after his best friend died... looking over, Takuya gazed quietly at Kouji who was leaning back in the black chair positioned at his desk. Before he had been asking if it really happened, but now... there was no denying. Instead of a friend he could always speak to there was this stranger in his form, taking away all of his privacy and constantly trying to provoke him. Eyes lowering, he sighed before turning away. Each to their own problem, but at least he was trying to understand the clone's. Kouji didn't even make an effort to understand - he just assumed everything and pushed the brunette away.

"Takuya! Shinya! Dinner's ready!" came his father's summon, although he wasn't actually expecting his eldest son to come out of his room to eat. The father sighed, recalling how since Kouichi had died, his son's refusal to eat most of the time led for nightly let-downs that his child would not partake in family dinners any longer. Back upstairs the two males glanced up hearing Shinya cheer as he raced down the hallway and to the stairs to fetch his food, no longer bothering to stop at his brother's door to see if he would join them. Even if his youthful cry sounded celebratory, he still worried for his sibling. The brunette and raven-haired one stared at the door, and then went back to spacing out.

"You going to get something to eat?" Kouji asked idly, readying himself to lash out at the other for not getting him something to eat as well.

"Only if you're hungry," Takuya replied with a shrug. "I'm never hungry around this time," he explained.

"Tch. A family ready to feed you and rather than enjoy it you just blow it off," Kouji muttered, earning him a glare from Takuya. After the first couple of looks the brunette was no longer startled by the similarity between Kouji and Kouichi - he could see differences now based on facial attitude that didn't stop him from growing a powerful hatred for the other.

"Do you want me to get you something to eat or what?" the brunette asked, ignoring the comment.

"Obviously, if I'm complaining about you having food available," Kouji snorted, crossing his arms as he gave a side-ways glare at the person who he had decided to spite with all his being before even meeting him.

"Then instead of whining about it--"

"I was complaining, you're the one that whines."

"I DON'T CARE!" Takuya yelled, glowering at Kouji, who merely smirked at this reaction. "Instead of WHINING," The brunette was sure to stress the last word, receiving a glare in return from Kouji, "just tell me! All right?" With that said, the brunette turned on his heel before going out of his bedroom door. Kouji merely watched him leave, a look of disapproval on his face. He was beginning to think he didn't even need to try and hate this guy.

Downstairs Takuya dragged his feet, already dreading the conversation to come. He knew that the second he walked into the kitchen his father would brighten and Shinya would make a snide remark about him finally coming to the table. Then as he made the plate he'd feel the smile from his parent seeing his child eating the food he made, and as he began to leave the room, recognize the fall of that hope. The guilt rose and his heart clenched, knowing perfectly well that was something of how it would go. Perhaps not exactly, but he didn't need to see or feel any of this to know that was what his father would feel: hopeful, and then let down. The brunette closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before walking into the kitchen.

"...Takuya? Oh, good evening." His father sounded surprised, blinking somewhat confused at his child entering the room. "Forget something?" he asked curiously. The man had long auburn hair let down for the night, no longer needing to be held up in a ponytail. Matching brown eyes watched his child curiously, blue work shirt slightly unbuttoned as he was finally home to relax and cool off from the summer heat. Takuya shook his head no, grabbing a plate and silently working to put random bits of food on it. A heavy silence came, the father watching in quiet amazement. Shinya watched his brother as well, before smiling as a thought crossed his mind.

"About time! I bet it's because mom isn't here," the younger brother laughed, smiling with a wide grin on his face. He had short brown hair that he spiked up, a style the boy had recently come to be rather fond of. He had on a green shirt and brown shorts, bare feet wiggling beneath the table while blue eyes stared up at his brother appreciatively. Making no response to these words, Takuya sighed heavily, already feeling guilty. Filling up the plate he moved to the fridge and grabbed two glasses of Ramuné - one orange, and the other strawberry. Muttering a quiet "thanks" to his father, Takuya scurried out of the room, hurrying to try and escape that building sense of doing something horribly wrong.

"...It was close enough," the father stated with a nod, smiling softly.

"Huh?" Shinya blinked up at his parent, confused.

"Don't worry about it, just finish eating," the man suggested, going back to his dinner with rejuvenated inspiration. His child was getting over it finally, and that was enough for him.

Meanwhile, Takuya hurried back up to his room while trying to not drop anything. Reaching his room, he groaned, lightly smacking his head against the door, realizing he couldn't open it with his hands full.

"Who's there?" Kouji mocked from the inside, obviously not even afraid of it being someone other than the brunette. The teen growled.

"Who else? Open up if you want to eat," Takuya snapped, shifting the two bottles and plate in his limbs already figuring the other wouldn't be opening the door for him. "Ugh, just forget it," he added not a second later, moving the cold glass bottles into his arms and then placed the plate in the hand attached to the arm holding the bottles. A hand now freed, he turned his doorknob, wobbling some before quickly grabbing the plate and regaining his balance. "There..." he sighed.

"It seems I didn't have to open up in order to eat," Kouji stated with a smirk, reaching over and taking the plate from the brunette.

"Well you still don't choose which drink," Takuya snorted, placing the strawberry Ramuné onto his desk where Kouji was going to eat before stalking over to his bed and plopping down on it with the orange flavoured one in hand.

"Not like I'd know which one I'd prefer anyway," Kouji grumbled back at the other, picking up the chopsticks. The two exchanged a short glaring match before turning away from each other with an air of annoyance. Taking the plastic pin the brunette pressed down with his palm on the glass stopper of the bottle. Fizzling came as the marble was thoroughly pushed down into the small vicinity it would rest at for all eternity—at least, until the brunette finished his drink and discovered the secret art of removing the bottle's top and getting that marble. An art he had, as of yet, never figured out.

"What **is** this?" Words finally spoken and they were that of distaste, apparently the clone found something he wasn't particularly fond of.

"What's what?" Takuya asked curiously, wiping some Ramuné dribbling down his chin. Placing his drink down on the hardwood floor, he walked over to peer at the plate, curious to find what got such a reaction.

"This," Kouji sighed with a roll of his blue eyes, pointing with his chopsticks at a riceball. Not the riceball--the small slice of lemon. The brunette plucked it off with a small laugh at the irony of someone so sour despising something else of the same flavouring.

"There, now you don't have to eat it," Takuya said with a nod, grinning slightly still at it and moving back to his bed. Kouji merely quirked a brow at this odd behavior, but lacking any interest in finding out he didn't ask. Some things were best left as a mystery in his opinion.

"Whatever." Takuya rolled his eyes at the other again, and back on his bed nibbled on the lemon. His eyes watered slightly at the sour taste, but he'd eat it. Better than letting something good go to waste.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon, or any of its characters of affiliates. I do, however, own the plot to this story and any of my OCs that decide to drop on in.


	5. His Anger, My Weakness

_Lithe fingers, frail shoulders… a perfect dream. Hearts beating with no adoration, minds running with no beliefs… a perfect nightmare. Angelic eyes, cherubic smiles… a perfect dream. Mechanical words, empty promises… a perfect nightmare. Lies, lies, lies, all your relationships are nothing but lies. Facts, facts, facts, you cannot see the truth beneath all these false feigning facts. _

* * *

Monday: the day both had equally dreaded, as they knew what exactly it would bring. Still hoping to avoid explaining to his parents why he had a clone of Kouichi living with them, Takuya concocted a plan that involved Kouji sneaking out his window as they left for school. Personally, the clone found the idea simply idiotic as his parents were bound to be called once the school noticed a dead student wandering about the halls. That and he had to follow the brunette throughout the day; no way in hell would he go by Kouichi's schedule. If that was the case, the brunette was kidding himself. Already outside and waiting, the brunette paced to and fro on the side of the house impatiently as he tried to find a way to explain this without any instances of being called a sick freak or Kouji being harassed. He already had a feeling any encounters that ended with Kouji being called 'Kouichi' would result in aforementioned clone mocking him from now until death. Wearing a light yellow shirt with red sleeves and collar, he put a hand in the left pocket of his pants to count his money. All right, he had an obento packed for the clone, and money for himself... perfect. They could both eat and no one would be complaining (there were more important things to concern themselves with later than food). Wearing his usual sneakers, he continued his pacing about, biting his lower lip. Pulling his hat over his face some, the goggles snapped off and fell to the ground. The brunette stood there for a moment, sighed and then placed his hat back in its usual position before bending down to pick them up.

Climbing down as carefully as he could, Kouji grumbled through the process. _'He has to be making me do this as punishment for existing, I just __**know**__ it_,' came the disgruntled thought of one very agitated clone. He wore a black shirt, though it was slightly small on him because he was taller than the brunette, who was lending it to him. On the brighter side, because the brunette liked his pants slightly baggy, the shorts he had on fit well-enough, much better than a pair being too small. That would nott be comfortable. "I can't believe you..." the clone complained under his breath, finally reaching the bottom. He lifted up his arms before dropping them, an annoyed look on his face. The brunette rolled his eyes at the ravenette, before leading the way. Takuya still had no excuse, and the closest to a good one was the truth. And honestly... the truth was so far-fetched it sounded like a lie. No one would listen to him. Finally accepting this, he hung his head. "Now what?" Kouji demanded, crossing his arms as he watched the other's process of thoughts on the outside.

"I'm just taking the first step to growing as a person, I'm admitting I have a problem!" Takuya proclaimed sarcastically, throwing his hands in the air in defeat.

"...We didn't have the same breakfast, but even so please assure me whatever was in yours was nowhere near **mine**," Kouji stated, giving the brunette a weird, confused look. That was hands-down the most absurd thing he heard his host say, and it was almost scaring him. It was bad enough he found the brunette the essence of annoying and troublesome, he didn't need the other to lose his mind.

"There was nothing in my breakfast nor yours," Takuya grumbled, giving the other a slight glare at the clone's obvious concern only for himself. Kouichi was never like that... he sighed. He shook his head; no he shouldn't have been comparing the two. But even if he hated Kouji, even if he could look at the other and feel the burn of loathing... there was still a small part of him that missed his best friend and was cruelly reminded when he saw the clone. It wasn't just because they looked alike. It was because their personalities were so different, and the brunette found himself around this anti-Kouichi as often as he used to be around his friend. It hurt.

"Why the psychotic words then?" Kouji asked, quirking a brow with a slight grin. '_Gods, is he trying to pick a fight __**again**_?' Takuya thought with dread filling him. He was getting sick of this.

"Because anyone stuck around you long enough finds the realms of insanity far more appealing," Takuya sighed, rubbing his temples and yet his words still managed to get a scowl from the other. He didn't even bother at this point - the clone was so intent on arguing that he'd be trying to fight back until the ends of time--and continue to just fail. He was normally an optimist, but with the clone, some realism was required. It was said there was nothing more hopeful than a hopeless man with many friends, but the only person he had always been able to count on was gone. There was that clenching sensation again, the churning that made him want to just curl into a ball. The brunette forced his eyes to remain open, to not show the other was getting to him. The clone would just think he was that good, but that wasn't even it.

"Probably because that's where they belong," Kouji grumbled, arms crossed. The brunette merely ignored the retort, and simply worked on mentally bracing himself for the upcoming day. How many of his friends would misunderstand and see him as a troubled youth? How many would run to Kouji thinking they could treat him the same way as Kouichi? That was a fast-track to a world of hurtful words with enough malice to cut through any physical barriers.

"Whatever." Takuya caved. There was too much dread and worry filling him to be bothered any longer by the other's words. He was becoming so emotionally drained...

Reaching the school, the morning light cast an eerie glow through the small patches of mist hovering over the green grass. There was at least a month of school left until summer break. Why couldn't all of this take place then? Why couldn't have any of this been avoided? Because he was him, he was Takuya. The brunette tried to shake it all away again, but there was no escaping it. No one got over a death in a month, especially not one of his or her closest friend. He had to stop wallowing in it though, at least with Kouji around. That was an exchange of words he never wanted to share with the other, for he knew exactly how heartlessly the other would say them. The main difference between Kouji and Kouichi: Kouji had no heart.

The grounds were quiet, almost frightfully empty. No other students were there, they were the first two. That was odd... frowning some, Takuya looked around.

"Where is everyone...?" he murmured quietly.

"Idiot, we're here early," Kouji snorted, rolling his eyes at the brunette.

"No we're not, I always come here at this time. Always. There's at least the people in the soccer field... or the cafeteria getting breakfast..." Takuya whispered quietly, eyes glancing from one empty spot to the next. "Maybe I set my clock wrong then... but..." He was confused, and getting somewhat scared.

"What are you so freaked out about? Maybe it was a school day off you forgot about," Kouji snorted, obviously unperturbed by this. He began to turn back to the house, not wanting to stay there any longer. He doubted this was normal, yes. But he also figured this was a joke played by the brunette so he didn't think much of it. A rustle, a waft of the forest drifting by. He whirled around, eyes narrowing. Takuya looked at him, confused.

"What is it?" the brunette asked. The scent of the forest was gone.

"Nothing," Kouji sighed, but was still visibly tense. Hearing more rustling, he whipped around to stare at a tree. A flash of glowing blue eyes before they, too, were gone. His eyes narrowed in the eyes' direction.

"If it's nothing, why do you look so serious?" Takuya hissed, looking over where the other did. He saw nothing.

"Because I like screwing around with your head," Kouji lied, turning away from the tree again and smirking. He didn't know what to make of it, but he could still have fun with it.

"Jerk," Takuya growled, glaring at the other before walking towards the school. The clone rolled his eyes as he followed the other. There was something funny about the quiet, and the clone really didn't like it. 'Maybe he isn't pulling my leg on this one...' Kouji thought idly, eyes going over the empty school grounds.

It was thirty minutes later, but the other students arrived in chattering masses. The brunette and clone hid off to the side, sitting in the shadows as they continued to postpone the inevitable. Neither cared to hear what was bound to be said, each for their own reasons. Kouji refused to be thought of as a replacement; and Takuya because he knew what they would all think. He didn't want to hear it. Sitting quietly near the large black building, the brunette found that it had always looked rather foreboding. What kind of school painted itself black? That wasn't even in their school colours, or on the mascot for their sports teams. He sighed, head already aching. Hanging his head down, he closed his eyes, trying to make all the hurt just go away. Kouji's earlier joke was a far cry from funny; the brunette doubted the clone recognized how much stress he inflicted upon his host. Soft steps made their way towards the two, more than one person making their way over to them. The brunette cringed slightly - the first of many. He made himself look up, only to blink. Kouji was raising a brow at the two women approaching them, curious as to whom they were.

One girl had long blonde hair to her mid back, bangs pushed out of her face via a blue headband with small white flowers on it. She wore a zip-up lavender sleeved shirt with a hood attached, and a long navy blue pleated skirt to her ankles. Pale, sky blue eyes were greeting the brunette for they weren't paying the other figure next to them any mind - yet. Walking next to her was a slightly older girl, with short pink hair to her shoulders with red streaks. She had syrup brown eyes, and stood a bit taller than the other thanks to her high-heeled shoes. She had on a light blue shirt with a green heart in the center, and a knee-length darker green skirt. She was looking more-so at the blonde than the brunette, a slightly concerned look on her face. They could have been sisters or friends, but either way they were approaching the two males together and something was on their minds.

"...Izumi?" Takuya asked softly, and the blonde gave a small smile. He glanced over to the pink-haired girl, a slight quizzical look on his face. The clone simply rolled his eyes. He figured the first people to call him 'Kouichi' would be the idiotic brunette's friends.

"Hey there," Izumi replied softly, before finally stopping in front of them with the other girl next to her. "This is Mimi." She introduced them, earning a nod from the brunette.

"Hi." Takuya gave a small wave to this new person, before receiving one in return. "Do you need something...?" he asked.

"Yes, uhm..." The blonde glanced down, hand moving to fiddle with her hair as her eyes traveled to look away. Then they landed on Kouji, before widening in horror. She stared, unable to remove her gaze from the dark-haired teen sitting next to the brunette, from the familiar face she recognized.

"Izumi...?" Takuya blinked, before looking to where she did. 'Good lord...' He registered what was happening, and jumped up to try and stop her from fainting - or at least catching her before she did so.

"K... K... Kou... T-Takuya... K... Ko..." Izumi mumbled, almost incoherently as she took a few steps back. Mimi appeared confused, looking from the clone to the blonde.

"Izumi?" she asked, reaching for the other, only to be denied. Izumi, still staring in horror, pointed at Kouji who simply raised a brow at her.

"B-but... he's... he... K..." Her incomprehensible words continued, shock enveloping her mind to where she was beyond reach.

"He's Kou--" Takuya tried to correct her, attempted to stop her. Her eyes widened hearing him speak however, and before he could finish the correct name, she screamed a loud, high scream that could pierce one's ears. It demanded attention; the sound was so terrifying itself it could only be compared to someone watching scientists skin them alive. You could feel it, you could see it... but you couldn't stop it, there was no saving you. All could be done was watch the scalpel lift your skin up and the blood flow without your words ever given - only your scream. It was haunting to every student's ears in the courtyard, just as the ghost standing before the blonde had come back to haunt her. All bodies in the vicinity rushed over to see why she screamed, resulting in Takuya cursing and grabbing Kouji. He tried to usher him inside and away from the gathering crowd. But there was no slipping into those doubled doors in time, as people were racing out of them to find the reason for such a blood-curdling scream to be given. The brunette skidded to a halt, and tried to hide the rather confused Kouji behind him.

"What's going on?"

"Who screamed?"

"Is someone dying?"

"Was there an accident?"

"Think it was a bombing?"

"Someone call the medics!"

"No, the police!"

Whirling confusion, students pressing past them as they aimlessly moved to check on the now hyperventilating Izumi. She wasn't thinking; she was just trying to breathe. Breathe, breathe, but she was so crowded... Mimi tried to push back the students, telling them to give her room. Teachers ran to the scene, all helping the pink-haired girl give the poor blonde room and air. As they attempted to calm her, a few students lost interest. Whatever it was, all it did was spook the girl. One or two of the small group wandering away from her stopped, however, spotting an unnatural sight behind the brunette who was still trying to keep Kouji from view. A boy fainted; he had been Kouichi's partner on an art project not long ago. A girl stared - she worked with Kouichi's mom at the grocery store. Another boy gawked, unable to move to catch the one who passed out.

"...Kouichi?" That was where the real confusion began.

"Are you trying to tell me he's a clone of Kouichi?" the principal scoffed. After students swarmed immediately around the two boys, it was almost as nonsensical as a riot. Takuya immediately regretted his refusal to allow Kouji to stay home. He shouldn't have brought the raven-haired teen with him to school. He shouldn't have. He shouldn't have. He shouldn't have tried to stay behind with his friend. He shouldn't have. He shouldn't have. He shouldn't have made so many stupid mistakes. Shouldn't have. Shouldn't have. The police arrived and quieted the students, only for the two boys to be dragged to the front office. Now Kouji sat in a chair outside of the principal's room, in all his agitated glory. Meanwhile, the brunette was yanked - alone - inside to speak with the head of the school.

"...Yes sir," Takuya spoke quietly, his mind playing over and over 'he should not have.' The guilt was eating him alive, but he couldn't break. Not until he got rid of Kouji--not until he found the sick bastard who would make a replica of his dead best friend under his name, and pulverized them. Not until then. Even so, he shouldn't have. He never should have.

"And someone put it that you did it? But aside from housing him, you've never done such a thing?" the principal inquired. He has a bald head, and squinty black eyes. Wrinkles overran his face, especially around his forehead which showed itself when he furrowed his brow. A scowl was on his face, and his gray suit made him appear completely monochrome. His white eyebrows were freckled in grays as well, and the age spots all over his skin made him appear like a checker board.

"...Yes sir." He spoke with a quieter tone, wanting so badly to crawl into that hole. His courage was leaving him, that structure that held him inside shaking. He shouldn't have told the truth. He shouldn't have.

"Do I look stupid to you?" the principal spat, making the brunette wince.

"...no sir," Takuya whispered. Shouldn't have said he'd take Kouji in. Shouldn't have.

"Then why are you trying to pull this crap on me?" his principal snarled, his boney arms slamming on the desk making the teen jump. "We all know you miss your best friend, but why in God's name did you have to pull something so irrational? And then taking it to school! Are you working towards watching him die again?!" he went on, his voice a low hiss. All the brunette could do was look down and shake his head. "Then for what sort of idiotic reason did you bring him here?!" he demanded, voice now loud as it boomed through the office. There was no response, and he snorted. "I'll be calling your parents. Then I'm going to call Ms. Kimura to inform her that she has a replacement for her son that she needs to decide as to whether it is to be kept or terminated," he sighed, sitting back in his chair.

"He." Takuya spoke quietly.

"What?" The principal raised a brow, picking up his phone.

"He. He has a sex, and he is a he. He also has a name, it's Kouji. He isn't a replacement. If you talk to him for even a second, you'll know he's the total opposite of Kouichi. I didn't order him. I brought him to school because, if you talked to him, you'd know it isn't safe to leave him alone. He isn't a replacement. His name is Kouji." He shouldn't have, but even so... Kouji was a jerk. But even jerks were human, weren't they? So why let them be treated otherwise?

"Is that a hint of defiance?" came the principal's snarl.

"No. It's the truth, whether you believe me or not." Takuya continued, his voice still a whisper. "Don't call his mom, and don't call mine. He'll never come with me to school, whether it risks having my home burned down or not. Just don't..." He couldn't believe he was degrading himself to the point to where he was pleading with a man he now despised to protect someone he absolutely hated.

"Again, do I look stupid to you?" the principal inquired in a low, threatening tone as he put the phone back down. "Answer me. Really, do I look stupid to you?" he growled. The brunette bit back the defiant urge to nod his head, and instead shook it. Meanwhile, outside the office Kouji was looking inside with a faintly curious look. He needed to take some lessons from the old man inside; it looked as though he was tearing his host to itty bits. "So tell me Kanbara... why are you treating me like an idiot?" he growled.

Now Takuya had to resist saying, 'because you are one.' Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the brunette replied softly, "That is not my intent."

"I'm sure. I'll be calling your parents now, and Ms. Kimura soon afterwards to decide the fate of it." The principal leaned back in his chair once more, grabbing the phone again.

"Fine! Call my parents, but don't send him to Ms. Kimura! He's my responsibility, and whether I'm ready for it or not I'll work with him until the end! Besides, clone or not he's still a human being and to kill him would still be a felony!" Takuya spoke up, ignoring how his body was shaking. He didn't want to get kicked out of the school, but he also couldn't stand the thought of what would happen if Kouichi's mother got her hands on an almost replica of her son. She took his death so hard... there were enough screws loose in her mind right now that there might not be a need for someone to kill Kouji - he might commit suicide to get away from her. The principal eyed him warily, before laughing.

"...Sir?" The brunette blinked, confused.

"Very well then. Take your sin against nature home with you, and do not ever bring him back to school with you. I won't tell your parents, or Ms. Kimura, if you can do that much. I'll let you go home early to do so." He chuckled, and for the final time set the phone back down. The brunette stared. "GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" The principal's voice boomed, scaring the teen enough to scurry out of the room. Watching the teens exchange a few words (Kouji rolling his eyes all the while) before leaving, the senior citizen watched with a bemused expression. "I wonder if they got wind of this..." he wondered out loud, before chuckling to himself.

* * *

**A/N:** I know. I know. What took so long, right? I hate this chapter. Really. Like... a lot. But I can't skip it, or else you will all be confused. So... if you hate it, no worries. I do as well. Let's beat it up. Kick it. And then move onto the next chapter, which is an improvement. In fact, I'll go upload the next one too so I can pretend this one never happened but you can still read it and not be confused. There. Now everyone is happy. (Hi dolls, how have you all been?)


	6. My Answer, His Illusion

_Gargle on as much bile as you please, the foam is easily wiped away. Roll your eyes as far back as you can, they are easily punched out. Struggle hard as possible, restraints may be used. Beg much as you like, the sentences only make sense to you. Injure yourself much as you dare, the wounds will never be fatal. Cry as many tears you are able to, they'll be the only ones wasted on you. _

* * *

"Hey, Takuya?" Izumi had asked.

"Yeah?" He looked to her.

"What... was that? Yesterday, I mean."

She wanted to know.

"It was Kouji."

He promised her.

"O-oh... can you tell him I'm sorry?"

She needed to apologize.

"Of course."

There was no avoiding it. The apology.

"Thank you... I wish I could but..."

She was afraid.

"It's okay."

He understood.

"That's good... so uhm... are they... related?"

Were they?

"In a way."

Should he lie? Could he?

"What do you mean?"

Incomprehension - an ode filled with words but having no lyrics.

"...promise to believe me?"

He didn't have any, so he needed a friend.

"O-okay..." She saw how somber his face looked, that sad face that the brunette wore so often since that day. Now it just looked tired. Takuya took a deep breath, and then explained it to her. Everything. He didn't know where to stop, or where to begin. She had listened to him in silence, all the while trying to believe this wild tale. In the end, she assured him that no matter how skeptical she felt, she and Mimi would try and help him. She believed him, even if a small portion thought he lied. But she'd rather accept what he said over the possibility that came to her thoughts when she saw Kouji.

"I thought it was Kouichi's ghost, come back to haunt me because I never returned his feelings... when you told me how he felt, I couldn't stop crying for days. I felt so horrible because I was too busy with my girlfriend to have ever noticed. He had always been so sweet to me... and yet... I never acknowledged, realized, or even considered... I had been so caught up with being with Mimi, he was just another person to me. But I'm glad it is just a clone on the physical level. It means Kouichi's spirit is resting in peace, and wasn't forced to live again without ever being asked if that was what he wanted or not."

Takuya never knew Izumi would be the first person to help him to his knees, whether she knew it or not. With her words in mind, suddenly Kouji was far more tolerable...

"Honestly, what kind of idiot are you?" Kouji sighed, rolling his eyes at the brunette. It was afterschool Tuesday, about an hour after Takuya had spoken with Izumi and gotten home. "See? Nothing is missing - your house is still standing. And you thought you couldn't trust me to not destroy the **only** place I have to stay." He had stressed the last bit, his speech light but his tone obviously angry. "You never had to take me to your school full of fuc--"

"I get it," Takuya ground out through gritted teeth, clutching his pencil tightly as he worked on his homework at his desk. "Now shut up so I can do this," he snapped, turning back to his paper. On second thought, he found that Kouji was no more tolerable now than he ever was. It was just a heavy weight lifted, only to return shortly.

"Your principal talk to you again?" Kouji asked with a smirk, not even bothering to consider quieting. The brunette's parents weren't home, and Shinya was over at a friend's house. Some kid named Tomoki. Kouji didn't really know either brat, but if they had some relation to Kouichi, they could burn in the hottest flames for all he cared.

"Didn't I ask you to shut up?" There was no use; he wasn't getting his homework done. The clone was intent on ruining his (already spiraling out of his control) life.

"Not politely," Kouji snorted, crossing his arms. He was laying on the brunette's bed, feet and legs propped up against the wall and making rather nice dirt marks all along the paint.

"**Please** shut up." Takuya knew the other was ruining his walls intentionally - the clone was ungodly spiteful.

"Not nicely, either." His smirk was back, blue eyes gazing over at mahogany ones that now appeared more red than brown.

"Will you **please** do me the **favor** of being **quiet** so I may do my **homework**?" The brunette decided then and there: if the clone chose to still refuse him the right to complete his assignment, he would grab the nearest writing utensil and stab the other repeatedly through the temple. He would do it too. Maybe.

"That's all you had to say," Kouji stated with a shrug, his face now blank of any expression. He looked away, shutting his eyes as he did so. After Monday, he was still in a foul mood and chose to express it strictly to the brunette. Then again, during the day, he made it worse for himself by trying to find his way back to the laboratory (which Takuya didn't know about). He had to complain to Wolf how much more rude Takuya was to him even when he tried to be nice, and ask to be allowed at the lab again. At least Sorcerer wasn't so annoying, and didn't fake tolerance. Alas, he couldn't find his way, and after wandering into a convenience store to ask for directions, some woman ran over to him screaming about that Kouichi kid again. If she wasn't borderline **choking** him he would have punched her square in the face. At least chance was on his side and her horrified co-worker dragged her off him long enough so he could escape. Even so, did the other employee have to scream 'yurei' so loudly? Then on the streets several punks saw him before running off and whimpering about an 'onryo.' He snorted, eyes still held shut. If those jerks running off in such a hurry were yelling about a vengeful ghost, then the Kouichi kid must have been some wimp.

Sighing, the clone opened his eyes to stare at the wall. He moved his feet off of it, cracking his back as he repositioned himself. He hated this place. When he tried to go outside and take care of some business, all the people scattered like flies. It was annoying. _"Be nice to him. Whether you can see it or not, but that boy is no happier about this than you are. Why I couldn't tell you, but don't push your luck with him...." _Wolf's words flowed through his mind, making him snort. So what if Takuya didn't want him there? He still let the clone live with him. Kouji rolled his eyes. _Whatever. Probably doesn't want me around just because I look like the dead wimp. Simple as that. They were probably friends. Simple as that._ All this embedded in his mind, he closed his eyes once more. Unlike the first time though, it was to sleep.

Takuya continued to work on his assignment, a bored but relieved expression on his face. For once Kouji was being quiet, and that was more than the brunette could ever ask for.

It took him a few hours, but he was finally able to complete it all. Packing all his papers up, he stretched before turning to look in the direction of the clone. It was still silent. Quirking a brow, Takuya tiptoed over to where Kouji was. Peeking, he couldn't help but smile. "You aren't so mean when you sleep," he chuckled, moving away from the unconscious form. He hadn't thought it possible, but that clone could indeed look peaceful, rather than annoyed or sneering. It was a nice change. Opening his door, he hurried downstairs to inspect the house. He hadn't heard anyone get home yet, rather unusual for both his brother and father. Taking a slow walk around the house, he found no one to be there. Curious, he walked through the living room and into the kitchen. He blinked. A note was on the fridge, a magnet holding it up. Yanking it off, the brunette read through out loud,

"Takuya,

Shinya and I are going with your mother to the usual restaurant. We would have asked to you come along, but a man named Wolf called earlier this morning stating the two of you already had plans this afternoon. Is he a new tutor? He also wants you to call him when you get the chance, before you head over to his place. Be careful. By the way, when we get home tonight you're telling us all about him. It isn't like you to not tell us about people."

"...Dad..." The brunette sighed, shaking his head. He snapped up. "Wait, what?!" he yelped, reading through the note again. Wolf called!? Whirling over to see what time it was, he cringed. It was almost eight now, far too late to make a walk over to where the cloning scientist was. More importantly, what if it dealt with the real purchaser? ...And how would he explain this to his parents? He shook his head, deciding to not worry about that. Grabbing the phone, he punched in the numbers on the note that he was supposed to call. Ringing, ringing, ringing... he growled, losing his patience. Someone needed to answer already!

"Hello?" drawled a bored voice. It was Sorcerer.

"Hi, yes this is Takuya. May I speak with Wolf?" Takuya asked, biting his lower lip. His chest was swelling with anticipation, hope.

"You're **late**," Sorcerer informed him. "Why didn't you call earlier? We left a message with your father, you know," he snorted. The man's attitude was faintly reminding the brunette of a certain clone... a grin twitched at the edges of his mouth. _No wonder they don't get along..._ Takuya thought, amused.

"Yeah, and he left me a written message on the fridge. I didn't bother with it until now..." the brunette explained, somewhat sheepish now.

"I'm sure. Listen, we have a very important visitor right now. Have Kouji call us around the time you get out of school, and we'll tell him to meet you at Kan-Ki. From there, you both will come here. Understand? There's a few things you need to know, and as for that nuisance... he needs to be here in case we're right in what you'll decide." Sorcerer's voice was blunt, not an ounce of humor in his words. However, there was a serious undercurrent. Whatever they found, it was big.

"Do you know who ordered him?" Takuya asked. He had to know.

"...Yes." The reply was hesitant. "We're hoping you'll explain." Nothing more. The brunette was quiet, contemplative. Was it possible... It sounded implied in the other's words that he did indeed order a clone—but why? He had no recollection of it - it went entirely against his morals... and he never heard of the place until they called him. He sighed; he wouldn't know for sure until tomorrow. But from that sinking feeling, he already very well knew the answer.

"I'll do my best..." Takuya murmured, leaning against the doorframe as he did during his first conversation with Wolf.

"Very good. Now, before we part... tell me, why did you take Kouji with you to school?"

"Eh!?! Who told you that?!" Takuya yelped, flailing one arm about while the other held a tight grip on the phone. Laughter was on the other side, meanwhile the brunette remained panicking. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry but I really didn't trust him here alone but it seems it's all good but can you blame me!?" he squeaked. All the while, the short man on the other line continued to snicker at the other.

"Calm down, it's all right. I can't blame you. As for how we know, it's a secret. But just so you know, your distrust was well-placed. We got wind he wandered out of your house while you were in school. He's a sneaky one, isn't he?" Sorcerer chuckled still.

"...Not cool. Seriously." Shaking his head, the brunette ran his fingers through his hair. "And he calls _me_ an idiot..." he mumbled.

"He does? And here we told him to be nice. We'll be sure to hit him with an iron-hot brander in that case," the other joked. "I'm leaving now, our visitor is getting quite impatient with us. So, I bid you adieu. Be careful." A click, and a dead tone.

The summer air was warm, and the humidity all but gone. Sprouts of bright green grass covered the lawn all around the restaurant, a few cars decorating the parking lot at various intervals. Kan-Ki was raised high near the roofrestaurant, the neon lights not on yet due to the bright afternoon sun. Takuya paced around the outside of the place, yanking his hat down to try and stop his brown bangs from flying all around in his eyes when the wind picked up. His goggles would start to slip each time he did so, and as he continued to wait for the clone he'd have to readjust them. His khaki capris were slightly loose on his hips, a mistake made by grabbing the wrong pair before forgetting to nab a belt with it. It wasn't too big of a deal - his maroon short-sleeve shirt was long enough it covered anything that might be revealed on accident. He wasn't keen on anyone seeing his Disney boxers. He tapped his red sneakers on the cement, making sure they were snug, rather than ready to fall off. Yes, they were fine. To keep his mind away from unusual thoughts (such as actually beginning to worry about the clone), he checked his cherry red backpack. Yes. That was fine too. Did he forget any homework? No, of course not. No. Maybe. Chewing his lower lip, he looked around. "Where is he...?" he mumbled to himself, his speech making him release his poor lip. Pacing in longer lines, the brunette continued to try and keep the worry away, but it would always come back. What if Ms. Kimura saw him and abducted the jerk? Sure Takuya hated him, but really... that was a fate worse than death. Or a doctor who tried to save Kouichi spotted Kouji, flipped out, and then kidnapped him to study the body? He shuddered. He'd stop there. He wouldn't worry about the jerk. That was a waste of effort to him. He stopped. What if that trio of robbers saw him...? He stood there, staring down. _**It's one thing to watch your friend die... it's another to watch them die all over again...**_ He had to go back to the house - he had to see if Kouji was in danger, or if the jerk was just pulling his leg.

Turning to head in that direction, he blinked noticing a familiar figure: an always familiar, but equally alien form. He sighed, almost smiling in relief. No! He was never worried. Shaking it off, he made himself stay put until the other got closer. Kouji, as he approached, had a dark, broody expression. Someone was in a foul mood... the brunette sighed, recognizing this to be a long walk. He shouldn't have worried. The clone was such a... there were no words to appropriately describe him. But he was so much of it that Takuya doubted anyone would really want to run off with him. Arriving, the clone quirked a brow at the other.

"...Are we going to go, or not?"

"Right..." Takuya blinked, realizing he had just been standing there with the other for a moment. How incredibly awkward… He began to lead the way. They walked through the more inhabited streets, the ravenette working to ignore the stares he was receiving while the brunette tried to not worry about the situation. Takuya found he was doing that far too much today - it needed to stop. People would stare, a few would murmur. Takuya never realized how many people Kouichi knew until a clone of him wandered the streets. It just went to show how far kindness truly went. He gave the clone an annoyed look, frowning mildly at the other. A certain guy could learn a few lessons about being nice. Noticing the look, Kouji merely gave a cold glare before looking forward again. The brunette let out a small laugh.

"What?!" Kouji snapped, immediately jumping on his first chance to start something up again.

"Sorry it's just... you're so predictable." Takuya snickered. Either he was losing it, or the fact the clone became a self-fulfilling prophecy was truly that laughable.

"Predictable...? I am not! What, Kouichi did the same thing?" The brunette's laughter immediately ceased, making Kouji smirk, seeing he hit a nerve. His expression faltered though seeing the look he got from the other. Takuya said nothing, but his face said all he needed to in order to persuade the clone to bite his tongue for the rest of the walk. It was a forced silence, heavy with a tension. Kouji wasn't sure why what he said had such an effect, and he didn't particularly care to know why either. Despite wanting to, he had to admit the brunette looked scarier than death with that glower. The people were still whispering. He would concentrate on that. Those people wouldn't go against him, they'd just run away like the cowards they were. There was no reason to be worried about them, but they did make for a good excuse to explain why he was so ornery. He could blame everything on them. Everything. Everything because there was nothing...

The colourful streets were slowly turning gray tones of monochrome, bland shades engulfing the brightly lit daylight of the city. Some could call it the slums, others could call it the bad part of town. It was full of old buildings, being halfway repaired before they were abandoned in their failed attempts. Why waste the time to fix the old when instead one could build something new? Why improve the past if there was a future ready to be made in the present? _Because there is no future without the past..._ Takuya thought, gazing at the unwanted fixtures. He glanced briefly at Kouji, before jerking his eyesight straight ahead. He didn't want a repeat of earlier. Did the clone know anything at all about his predecessor? If so, how could he say such harsh things? If not... was it because he was afraid to find himself a failure? Was that why he hated to be compared...? He didn't know; Takuya had no way of knowing. Kouji wouldn't let him. _Just keep them guessing, huh?_ He sighed mentally. _Jerk._ The cruelest person with what used to be the kindest personality. He was born with all the knowledge of his age group, but no childhood. How... depressing.

"Are we lost?" Kouji growled. He wasn't a happy walker. He couldn't stand borrowing clothes from the brunette. The one black shirt the other had barely fit him, and he was tiring of wearing just jeans. But then, that was preferable to sharing the same undergarments. He shuddered. Far better. At least the shoes he wore fit right. Those he got from Wolf and the others though... maybe they wanted him there as well so they could give him better clothes. Then he remembered Sorcerer. Maybe not.

"No, I know where we are. Now to find 8876..." Takuya murmured, paying no mind to the other's foul mood. He'd be annoyed as well if he had been walking for almost an hour while going commando and wearing denim. He cringed. Before Kouji decided to find some sort of sadistic way of getting back at him, the brunette needed to buy him some boxers of his own. With that in mind, he suddenly didn't feel safe going to bed at night... he might wake up with a bald head. Or even worse... missing a kidney.

"It's right there," Kouji sighed, pointing over at crumbling stone building. That was it. 8876. No mistaking that place... The two made their way over there, peering inside.

"Tally?" Takuya called.

"YOU'RE HERE!" the woman cheered, lunging from the ceiling and landing on one scared teen and one horrified clone.

"GET OFF ME!" Kouji ordered.

"Balance - losing - falling!" Takuya yelped, trying to stop himself from falling... but alas... his weight brought him down along with the hollering Kouji and maniacally laughing woman. All three fell through the hole. Strangely, it wasn't the hole the brunette went through when he first came and left. The trio rolled through a tube, both males screaming while the lone female giggled insanely, probably at the clone and teen. Tumbling about all inside, they kept bumping into each other or the walls. It was a water slide without the water.

_Ssplooounk!_ They all were dumped out of a strange device. It was circular, had a lot of foam, and water was dripping out. They were all wet in their now soaked clothes, and half poking out of the device. Okay, so it did have water. Tally squeezed out first, wiggling until she was free and rolled all along the floor, snickering. Kouji and Takuya watched her, the clone's eye twitching and the brunette still trying to comprehend what just happened. Then they realized the foam device forced them to be in an unusually close vicinity of each other. They quickly forced themselves out. There was a short exchange of glares, before they scuttled away to have nothing to do with one another.

"Wow that was fun!" Tally laughed, doing a quick wiggle dance while she stood. It was an odd cross between the Monkey and the Electric Slide. "La la la la la... splish splash, we were falling through a bath!"

"Isn't that dangerous? Having so much water near electrical devices?" Takuya asked, sulking some. The water was unusually sticky... and thick... was it actually water? He blinked at it. "...this is water, right?"

"Hah! That is similar to water, but it is perfectly safe near wires and such! It works like rubber - it repels the shock!" Tally explained with a laugh, yanking Sorcerer out of his seat and startling the vertically challenged. "Dance with me until the sun rises at midnight and the moon sets in the afternoon!" She laughed, prancing in her upbeat mood.

"Whatever you got into, you shouldn't smoke it while we're working," Sorcerer snarled, but didn't fight it. He knew better to resist her energy splurges - best to wait it out until she crashed and burned. All she did was laugh, still waltzing around with the limp man. _Are they together...? _Takuya wondered, blinking at them.

"This is something very similar to amniotic fluid, with a few extra harmless chemicals to make it safe around the equipment," Kouji explained calmly, standing up without seeming to mind it much.

"...and amniotic fluid is...?" Takuya blinked, his density becoming a marvel in itself.

"It is what is contained inside the amniotic sac," Tally said happily, now taking to square dancing with a Sorcerer on the verge of tears. "In other words... it's the stuff that helps nurture a fetus during a woman's pregnancy!" she sang, a bit too happily, making her reluctant dance partner twitch in mortification. He began to squirm, now unable to tolerate being near her. Hearing a woman say something like that in such a happy tone, while dancing with you, was very scary. Traumatic, even.

"…eh?" Takuya's lowereyelid twitched, before he looked at the liquid he was covered in. "...eh?!" he yelped, now working his hardest to get it off of him. "Eew, eew! Gross!" It wasn't a girly response – both men and women would freak out.

"Calm down, it's not like you weren't conceived in it," Kouji scoffed, walking over to where Wolf sat at his laptop, still in front of the huge screen with several 0's and 1's scrolling down at a high speed. The man was hunched over, his once bright red eyes overcastdarker than before. His wild blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he wore the same bland outfit Takuya first saw him in. In fact, the entire place was still the hospital white he remembered it to be.

"...uhm... awkward..." was all Takuya could think to say, walking over to the tall man as well. Mahogany eyes peered over at the clone, mulling over the other's words for a moment. Was that the stuff they created the other in? It must have been, as it didn't bother the clone even in the slightest. It seemed natural to him.

"Welcome back," Wolf stated, never glancing up from his portable device. He sat in his chair still, eyes intent on what was before him. When he spoke in his deep voice, Tally ceased her dance - her loosened hold allowed time for Sorcerer to escape. However, he froze as well. The brunette shifted from one foot to the next, unease filling his gut. What did this mean? What kind of bad news was this? Biting his lower lip, he looked at the other two scientists before looking back to Wolf. Kouji merely raised a brow, and when he tried to peek at the information Wolf merely closed the laptop.

"S-sorry I'm late," Takuya mumbled, looking down. The tall man gave a soft smile.

"Don't worry about it. You have a life, and it seems someone was trying to drag you into something without your permission," Wolf assured him, and the brunette immediately looked up.

"Who!?" He demanded, eyes narrowing, moving forward towards the other. The man didn't react aside from his gentle smile turning into an almost pitying one.

"I'm sorry to tell you this... but it's Kouichi."

* * *

**A/N:** IS THAT PLOT I SEE? Dun dun DUN!  
**Disclaimer:** I have no ownership or affiliation with Bandai, Hongo-sama, or anyone else officially involved in the Digimon series. I am doing this completely for free and for no other reason than being a fan of this series and the fanon pairing of Kouji/Takuya and displaying it in a written format.


	7. His Hatred, My Sorrow

_"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." --Dr. Johnson_

* * *

"Don't worry about it. You have a life, and it seems someone was trying to drag you into something without your permission," Wolf assured him, and the brunette immediately looked up.

"Who!?" He demanded, eyes narrowing, moving forward towards the other. The man didn't react aside from his gentle smile turning into an almost pitying one.

"I'm sorry to tell you this... but it's Kouichi." There was an awkward silence, heavy with understanding in what the tall man just revealed. The brunette stood there, frozen with his eyes wide as memories flowed through his mind about the events that led up to his friend's death. Kouichi's visage came back in wisps in his mind's eye - vivid details as his friend stood out in colour against a blood red backdrop. That look of understanding when the bandaged man had said that he was to stay... and not Takuya. Kouchi knew something, in that span of time when he was in charge for once. But the brunette didn't know what that something was. Mouth gaping still, mahogany eyes wide as the shock still held him in place. Unable to speak, hardly capable of breathing... That day looped over and over again in Takuya's mind**, **to see what he missed and why his friend would order a clone of himself... did he know he would die?

"A bit of a narcissist, isn't he?" Kouji sighed, crossing his arms as he rolled his eyes. Wolf tensed, hands clenching the laptop as though sensing what was about to come. Tally looked around, puckering her lips in an attempt to restrain herself from speaking before taking a few steps back. Sorcerer stared at Kouji. The short man could not believe the clone was that **stupid**. The brunette was broken from his thoughts, which for any other reason would have been a positive deal. However... this case it was a problem. He wheeled on the clone, earning a raised brow.

"You...!" Takuya growled, stomping in the clone's direction. Standing directly in front of the other now, his eyes narrowed to dangerous red slits. He clenched his fists, contemplating how hard he could hit Kouji before someone stopped him.

"Me?" Kouji asked with a smirk. If the brunette seethed anymore, Tally was positive he'd fry his own brain. Not wanting this, she quickly moved to intervene. Grabbing Takuya's shoulders, she slowly pulled him away from the clone, who continued to have that smug look on his face. She'd leave him to Sorcerer - the short ones were always the best fighters. If he heard her ever say that though... well, her point would only be proven. She guided him away from the clone, but the brunette's glare only intensified. Kouji merely kept his cocky attitude, before it fell at Sorcerer's threatening look. The small man moved over and roughly grabbed the clone's arm, only to yank him away to a separate room while the brunette cooled down.

"Only idiots push away things they need," Sorcerer snarled under his breath to Kouji who merely rolled his eyes.

* * *

It was the silent treatment, which was turning out to be the cruelest punishment he could receive for his words. Kouji was getting sick of it. He was locked in that room all day, hiding in the closet when the brunette's parents came home, and when Takuya did get back the only recognition of the other's existence was feeding him. It had been two days -- that was forty-eight long hours -- of enduring boredom. And the brunette? Kouji wasn't even sure where he went; the guy got home so late all the time. He'd go to school but not return until his curfew around nine at night - which of course was when he'd choose to feed the clone. The guy was beginning to feel rather caged, or as if he was some sort of pet.

On the other hand, Takuya was starting to drive himself insane. He couldn't stop wondering if he'd made the right choice... The brunette hung his head, standing outside of his own home as he hid from his parents. He could hear them laughing, watching their favourite game show together. The brunette closed his eyes. Kouji must've really hated him right then. Able to freely move about in the world without ever worrying about someone screaming – to travel around in his home without the people inside being terrified. But Takuya had to take care of business before he came home, he just had to. Or at least, that was what he kept telling himself.

At school he told Izumi about what he learned regarding the clone's original purchaser, and the blonde looked shocked. She had suggested that perhaps if Kouichi **did** know he'd die, then he ordered the clone as means of immortality, but the possibility was immediately shot down by Takuya who couldn't hold himself back in yelling at her. The blonde was shocked, for she had never seen him display such anger. After he finished, she never reprimanded him. She just apologized, eyes downcast... and the brunette felt a heavy weight of guilt. He also gave his sincerest apologies, stating he shouldn't have taken his frustration out on someone who tried to help. That was when Mimi arrived, and curiously inquired what was going on. Izumi just said they needed to help Takuya, and the pink-haired girl gave the kindest smile Takuya had seen in days. In a way, it almost reminded him of Wolf's. With that, he now found that those two girls were helping him search for a possibility as to why Kouichi would ever do that. Why?

Now he was at home, done researching wanted criminals at the library. Those robbers had some connection to Kouichi - he knew it. Those robbers... the clone... Wolf... he didn't understand any of it. He wasn't even sure if he made the right choice when the cloning scientist asked him...

"Takuya? We're almost positive we know your answer... especially after that but... we'll ask you anyway," Wolf began, those two days ago. He had looked like he found it silly to ask. The brunette had still been seething during that time, hating that clone for never allowing himself to understand or others to. "Since Kouichi ordered him, then by all means you have no requirement to keep him. If you like, we can reach his mother and request for her to care for the ordered clone of her deceased son." Yes. It was a nice offer... Takuya had the chance to get rid of that jerk. He had the chance of a lifetime - toss away his connections to this demented set-up, or keep in contact with everything that went wrong in his life.

Yet he had chosen to allow Kouji to remain living with him. It surprised Wolf, Tally, and Sorcerer. No one told Kouji he was at risk of getting tossed aside like yesterday's trash into someone else's care. No one bothered to care if he knew or not. Takuya had been so angry, and the others were so surprised they just let the two leave. And explaining Wolf to the brunette's parents had turned out to be easier than Takuya expected... he just had to say that Wolf was an assigned tutor that he didn't even know about until that day. It was easier because he lied to people who put their unwavering trust in him to always be honest. It was so easy to do, so easy that when he looked back on it now, it made him feel sick. It shouldn't have been so simple.

Takuya looked up to the sky, always asking himself why. Why did he let Kouji stay? Why would nothing leave him alone? Why was Kouichi's soft smile haunting him now, and why was it always bathed in red...?

The clone growled, finally getting fed up with waiting. He was not some subservient buffoon that would wait hand and foot on some idiot who treated him like crap to begin with. If the brunette thought Kouji would allow this then he was wrong, dead wrong! Opening up the window quietly as he could to sneak out, he stopped midway noticing the figure of someone leaning against the home. It was Takuya. He raised a brow, wondering if that was what he had been doing these past few days. He growled again, pushing the window all the way up. That's all it was? Someone needed a bit of alone time so he'd just hang out around the house in mockery of the clone?! He wasn't even doing anything important.

Kouji went back into the room and rummaged around, trying to find something to use as means of payback. Perhaps he could take the other's underwear drawer and throw it out the window? See if Takuya could explain that one to his parents (and that way the brunette would have to endure commando days as well). Proud of this scheme, he worked to pull the drawer out of the dresser. He stopped. That was... the gayest idea he ever had. Glancing down at the boxers, he sighed before pushing it back in. Eyes traveling over to the television, he smirked. He was sure if he threw that out the window there would be plenty of suffering on the other's end. But then, Takuya never turned it on. In fact, Kouji had been using it more to make the days pass faster. "This sucks," he grouched, plopping on the bed. He hated this powerless feeling. The brunette wasn't around often enough lately for him to instigate conversations he could dominate in.

With a sigh, Takuya moved to go inside before an open window caught his eye... he stared at it. He was being awfully cruel, wasn't he? Fine. He'd apologize. Again. As always. To the jerk that had no sense of guilt or sorrow-- the clone who mocked Takuya in every sense of the word. The body that lied about its identity. Going inside, he didn't even bother greeting his family. They were too busy with their show to even notice their child getting home. In fact they were too busy to even care that every day people would whisper, 'did Takuya really bring Kouichi back from the dead?' Trudging up to his room, he opened the door to be greeted by one really irritated expression. Kouji was not happy with him. But Izumi and Mimi aside, who was anymore? "Let me guess. You're hungry," the brunette sighed, merely getting a glare.

"No, I'm full off of the stale air," Kouji replied with a sarcastic roll of his eyes, arms crossed as he sat on the bed impatiently. "Yes I'm hungry. You going to feed me or what?" he snapped, not even bothering to hide his annoyance with the other.

"Yes." Takuya sighed once again, too tired to argue with him. "Sorry I'm la--"

"That's a load of bull," Kouji shot back, standing up immediately. "I saw you just leaning on the side of the house, wasting away the outside! You think it's funny don't you?! I bet you laugh every time you go outside just to look at me still stuck in here - in this room!" he snarled, taking a threatening step closer. The brunette merely kept his gaze on the other, uncaring of his words.

"Did you see me laughing? Do you even see me smiling at this point?" Takuya asked. The other hadn't, and so Kouji couldn't say anything to it. "Thought so," he sighed, and turned to head downstairs to get the clone food.

"Hey! Don't just walk out in the middle of a conversation!" Kouji yelled, not even caring to lower his voice in case the brunette's parents heard.

"You don't let me converse with you. All you do is argue..." Takuya reminded him in a tired voice, and was gone down the stairs not caring if his parents heard either. That would be the clone's loss - it would only be his mistake. He didn't take any time at all gathering food and grabbing a drink, it was only a matter of minutes before he was back in his room and setting down the glass. But that plate would never make it to the table. A fist collided with the brunette, the attack so sudden he was unprepared and fell back from the force. Kouji glared down at the other on the floor. He was beyond angry then.

"You think you're so great, don't you?" Kouji snarled, his cold eyes still watching the brunette on the floor with bits of the dinner splattered around him. Takuya blinked rapidly as he tried to regain his bearings, the confusion still there while his jaw ached. "Answer me!" the clone hissed, slamming the door shut and locking it in case the brunette's parents came up to see what the commotion was.

"...What?" Takuya blinked again, rubbing his jaw as his other arm moved to push himself up. The ravenette gave him a swift kick to the side, earning a yelp and stopping the other from getting up.

"You must think you're so great!" Kouji snarled, squatting down to wrap his hands around the others neck. "I'm getting sick of this!" he yelled, starting to tighten his grip. Takuya's eyes widened, a sense of fear replacing that empty void of emotions. The clone had lost it. "Being trapped in here all day! Waiting for you to get back just so I don't starve! All because I need to hide from your parents? Meanwhile you strut around like you own the place." His voice was barely above a hiss and with each word his grasp tightened. To steady himself better, Kouji moved to straddle the other's hips. There, now he could comfortably choke the life out of the brunette. The life he was denied.

"Ack... K-Kouji..." Takuya squeaked, his own hands reaching up to try and pry the other's fingers off of his neck.

"WELL I DON'T CARE!" Kouji yelled, now squeezing with the rising volume in his voice. "WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO ME?! What? Do you want me here all to yourself? Don't want to share the replica of your Kouichi?" He could just crush the other's throat like a paper cup... it was there in his hands, there was a body beneath him struggling to survive. He blinked. No... Takuya wasn't really struggling at all against him. Only his pitiful tan hands lightly trying to remove his paler ones, almost as though such movements would coax the other to stop. He snarled, before releasing his grip. The brunette was right.

"Idiot." He looked away, ceasing all violence against the other at once. Takuya coughed and sputtered, his head swimming in a dizzy spell as he tried to breathe regularly again. He was confused. One minute Kouji was... but then he...

"I hate you," the clone whispered quietly, but he didn't really have to say that. His tone and actions said it all. And Takuya?

All he could think of to say was, "I'm sorry." Sorry that the other was denied everything he was unsure if he still wanted.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the rights, nor have any affiliation with Digimon. Rather, Bandai, Hongo-sama, and all of those wonderful people who ARE affiliatied with Digimon Frontier own it. I'm just fangirl, with lots of ideas and little time...

**A/N:** So... uhm... here. Life-endangering cliffhanger averted, hooray!


	8. My Reasons, His Emptiness

"_A human being is only interesting if he's in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it." -Barbra Streisand_

* * *

It had been slightly rocky after the quarrel between the clone and human, the already shaky 'relationship' between the two enough to be called sibling rivalry - if it had been far less complex than what it truly was. For the two fought over what was right, not what was rightfully theirs. The weekend had now approached and the Kanbara family, with one exception, was out for the day. Both his parents were working, and Shinya was to stay the night over at Tomoki's once again. The brunette's younger brother sure had been spending a lot of time at his friend's house as of late... he shook his head, not even wanting to bother with it at the moment. There was already enough to worry about at this point; a good example of this was Kouji eyeing both a bag of ramen and a pot.

Takuya was starting to wonder if being locked up for so long affected the clone's appetite in any way - the only words he really got out of Kouji lately were complaints about food. Something was too cold, or perhaps it was too hot... whatever it was, the other hadn't been satisfied with his meals period. Take him out for lunch? Hardly. Someone was bound to be at the same restaurant, and the panic would ensue again... just like it had at school. The guilt returned, the remarkably stupid mistake he had made still lingering in his mind.

"So. You going to cook, or what?" Kouji idly wondered, his eyelids covering most of the deep blue that gazed out at the brunette. Takuya sighed, and gave a roll of his eyes as he went to fill the pot with water. He was already thinking of the other's possible whines regarding what was given to him. _The noodles are too thin, the water too hot, not enough seasoning, too little... excessive water, not enough water... _The brunette ticked off them all in his mind, ignoring the wandering of the other in the kitchen. What was the worst that could happen? Kouji was stupid enough to play with a knife? His memory immediately pulled up the sudden attack that had transpired some nights ago. _Or stab me in the back._ He shuddered. Setting the pot on the stove, he put the settings on 'high' so it would boil faster. Giving a nod in approval, he turned to see what exactly that clone was up to. Killing him? Slaughtering an innocent puppy? He didn't put it past the guy anymore. Rather than acts of violence though, was instead the ravenette inspecting the wall with the portraits. Kouji reached for the family portrait, curiously brought about by it. "Whoever did this was good. Get it done at a mall?" His tone was cocky, a brow raised as though he felt he could see into all that there was.

"No... Kouichi did that." Right when he said 'Kouichi' the pale hand snapped back away from it as though it burned, anything having to do with the person he was created from probably the reason for such an effect. _Funny, _Takuya thought. _I'm sure if the two ever met they'd get along really well... partially because Kouichi is so patient and understanding, it'd only be a matter of time before Kouji broke down and was kinder in response.' _He sighed. _'Why can't I be that patient with this pain in my..._

"What are you thinking about?" Kouji asked, eyes narrowing at that far-off look.

"Nothing." Takuya sighed, already aware where this was heading... but the clone wasn't.

"What? Comparing me to Kouichi again?" Came the usual jest at his attempt to start something that wasn't there.

"No, comparing Kouichi to myself..."

"...you're a very strange guy." That was all Kouji could think of to say in response to that. Takuya was the exact opposite of what he expected, and Kouji was the exact opposite of what the brunette had always known... in that aspect, they were precisely the same. But neither really noticed it, at least not until now. The brunette tilted his head, thinking about it.

"Hey, I was wondering..." Takuya began, glancing slightly at the water before resuming his gaze on the clone who merely quirked a brow. "If you could start a life elsewhere, go out and do whatever you wanted... what would it be?" He asked, cocking his head to the side somewhat. The clone stared.

"And you want to know... **why**?" Kouji asked, his expression revealing his thoughts clearly: he thought the brunette had lost it at this point. Doing all kinds of strange, foreign concepts to his mean ol' brain. Like being nice, comparing himself to Kouichi and not the clone, asking aforementioned clone what he wanted... it was sick. Really. In no way whatsoever did it make him feel weird, awkward even. That developing funny feeling also had NOTHING to do with his random urges to lash out to make it stop. Psh.

"Well..." Takuya scooted from the stove, and scratched the back of his head. "You're always talking about wanting to be out of the house... I was just curious, what was so important out there that made you want to?" He explained, ceasing his itching but still trying to stop himself from feeling weird about asking. The clone eyed him warily, as though searching for signs of deceit... of treachery. Well, so far the brunette hadn't done anything TOO bad... and he knew very well what would happen if he didn't answer. Fine.

"I want to live. What else?" Kouji asked, looking at the brunette with a straight face. "There's nothing worthwhile to do in here, I'm just wasting away all day. Waiting to be fed because I can't **go** out of a stupid room, can't **do** anything because I look like some dead guy-"

"He isn't **some** dead guy!" Takuya instantly snapped, cutting in the other's explanation. The clone glared, crossing his arms as he leaned moreso on one leg. "Being interrupted by **some** dead guy's..." Kouji seemed to inspect the brunette, as though trying to pinpoint what exactly his predecessor was to him. Takuya rolled his eyes and slammed his hand on the counter, returning the glare with that of his own. This? **Again**? Well... this time there was no Wolf, Sorcerer, or Tiene to convince him to chill out. He could care less what the jerkface said, heck he'd even try and understand him as he was trying to... and he almost made it! Almost! But no - as usual Kouji had to be nothing more than... well, all words to describe him were too kind and lacked intensity.

"Do you even **have** any idea, any whatsoever who Kouichi was to me!?" Takuya demanded, already feeling his eyes water with a sting that grew each time his heart pounded in his chest.

"A friend?" Kouji inquired, though it sounded more like a guess than much else.

"Yes! My best friend! Do you know what the last thing we did together!?" The brunette snarled, fists clenching. He wouldn't relent on someone who just wanted to abuse him. He wasn't kind like Kouichi... he wasn't patient as he was either. He would not cry like Kouichi did in fights. He couldn't give this guy the satisfaction which he knew Kouichi's look-alike would get from seeing it. He was shaking, everything inside crumbling in a growing flood made of an endless void. He would not.

"Let me guess, it was this! Argue?! Fight because you're an annoying, irritating idiot?! If so, I wouldn't be surprised!" Kouji hissed with equally growing hatred. The argument was catching him off-guard, his weak comebacks proof of this.

"Well, then be surprised! Because the last time I saw him he was bleeding all over the flowershop floor and every time I see your face with that stupid smirk of yours I think of the woman who SHOT him! The last thing we did together," Takuya smiled, an insane one as a tear went down his cheek. He failed. He couldn't handle Kouji's insensitivity. He couldn't handle everyone blaming him for bringing a cruel reminder back to the world - the one he got just sitting in his room. That Kouichi was dead. Either his deranged expression or his words led to a confused look from the other. The brunette laughed. Yes, now he got through to the him. "Was him getting killed trying to protect me! But you wouldn't know how it feels to watch someone you love die because you don't care about anyone! You push everyone away and every time I try to be nice to you, accepting of you, all you do is shove it back in my face with your inability to conceive anything human! You want people to treat you as something more than a clone!? Then have you ever considered acting like something more!? It's hard to treat you as anything other than how you see yourself!" Takuya didn't know he could say anything of that nature to another person; there was never so much hurt inside. He never wanted to take his pain out on someone else, never lashed like this. But he couldn't... he couldn't... all the while, the raven-haired male stared in a speechless silence. Kouji, for once, didn't know what to say. After all that, he couldn't find it in him to retort. "You know what? Whatever." The brunette released a forced laugh, eyes glazing over. "I don't care anymore. I really don't. Congratulations Kouji, you're the first person whose managed to get me to give up on them." He released a heavy breath, before turning around and heading back to his room.

Minutes passed, but Kouji remained standing there stock-still. _Then have you ever considered acting human?! It's hard to treat you as something you don't act like!_ Those words were the truth, though not exactly what was spoken. But nowhere near as much as the realization of what he had been doing to Takuya all along. Mocking him for missing a friend that could never replaced. Insulting the only person that recognized Kouji as an individual, and merely throwing it back in his face. He really wasn't human.

* * *

**A/N:** AHA!! What now, Kouji?! ...anyway... is anyone even reading this? Like... hello?? _Waves hand back and forth_ I mean, like, I don't mind if no one reviews but... can anyone give me some kind of sign they still do? Because if no one is reading it, I will more than happily save my beta-reader some time and not send off the chapters for her to correct. Followed by just plain taking this **down**. I know it sounds mean, but really... if no one is enjoying it, is it really worth keeping up?


	9. His Isolation, My Faith

_A friend once told me, "There's nothing crueler than cloning. Imagine what it would be like, to have your friend die... then for them to be cloned, just to die all over again." Since then, it was no longer a matter of recreating a false image of what you once knew - it was then a matter of how much ache one's heart could take. _

* * *

It had been a whole day, and Sunday had arrived. That could have gone without stating, but at times repetition was important. Meaningful. There were moments that a mantra was useful, albeit slightly annoying. But no one would condemn such things, for they calmed an angry soul and destroyed the hatredfrom within. Usually. Mostly. Occasionally. Whatever. Kouji sat on the edge of the brunette's bed, staring around at the room. Fine, he'd admit it... everything that happened yesterday left him utterly dumbfounded. How was one supposed to react to such a thing anyway? He was the clone of Kouichi, who had sacrificed his life to save Takuya. And Kouji? He put Takuya down every chance he got, following it up by insulting someone that accepted death to protect another person. He had never protected anyone, or anything. Why, he couldn't even claim to have any **friends** to be around... let alone keep safe. It was a new emotion to feel, the guilty tingle up his spine and inner self-hate. _It's hard to treat you as anything other than how you see yourself!_ Takuya's words echoed in his head, and he quickly tried to shake them away. But it was hard to deny the truth.

He thought he had been rightfully accusing others of looking down on him, but those that he regularly interacted with had never really given him any real reason to think they saw him in such a manner. Wolf allowed him to have his own name, and even altered his hair to make it so the two were distinguishable from the start. He'd often pick fights with Sorcerer, but... the short man never quite called him a replica. Tiene would often do her best to keep their verbal arguments to a minimum and... then there was Takuya. The brunette gave him a safe place to stay, would try to talk to and appease him as best he could... did he screw up? Plenty, but now that he thought back on it he couldn't blame the brunette for everything.

Kouji was crude, and Takuya had been plagued with housing a creation that probably brought back painful memories. Over time, the clone's agitation only grew and without reason. He could blame it on cabin fever, paranoia, even a natural distaste for any sort of social interaction. He sighed. Whether he liked it or not, he had to make it up to the other—earn back the right he had initially been given and have a second chance, even if he wasn't sure if that was what he really wanted. Be nice? Heaven forbid. But... being treated as a human was nicer than this. It wasn't a silent treatment. The brunette would glare at him, not speak to him... he didn't even get the ramen (for dinner) yesterday. He was hungry, but at the same time he didn't wish to venture downstairs and meet the brunette's parents. And the only way he could think of making it up to the other was...

Standing up, he looked around the room. What was it like in there when he wasn't in it? The gaming console was dusty. Perhaps Takuya would play all kinds of different games, maybe even fighting games to release his pent up anger from school. The computer desk - maybe the brunette would draw, write, or even just sit at it while talking on the phone. What was Takuya like when he wasn't being constantly harassed by someone? When there was no pain? Still solemn and quiet, only speaking louder when someone angered him? Or perhaps friendly and playful? He didn't... know. Kouji didn't really know much of anything. He didn't know what normal people did, as his grasp on normalcy was far from everyone's accepted views. He wasn't even really sure what food he liked, or disliked. He knew words, how to form sentences and speak. His brain had to have information placed inside of it to match the size and development it was forced to quickly reach. There was an initial personality, but it was hateful and empty. What extracurricular activities would he enjoy the most? Parties... were they enjoyable to him? If he took a test right then, right there... he wouldn't know his answers. What was his favourite colour?

The door opened, and his blue eyes snapped to it. They widened. The blonde girl from the high school stood there, blinking in equal surprise to see him. She looked down, and muttered an apology as she quickly entered and shut the door behind her. Kouji glared, stepping away from the young woman. She was intruding on him, and was one of the many that had freaked out. Like he wanted to see her pale-faced, blue-eyed self.

"I-I'm sorry." Her eyes were still glued to the floor. "I was looking for Takuya and his parents told me he was in here. If I had known you were hiding in here--"

"I'm not hiding, he hides me," Kouji scoffed, crossing his arms, his gaze never leaving her. She glanced up slightly to return the look before returning her eyes to the floor.

"My mistake," Izumi whispered quietly. "May you, uhm... be able to tell me where he is?" She looked back at him, though now she appeared hopeful. He rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms.

"How should I know?" he demanded.

"Because... you're staying in his room?" Izumi inquired, tilting her head slightly. "As his prisoner?" Her lips tweaked, as though she had made a joke and was tempted to smile at it. He scowled.

"That doesn't mean I care about where he goes and what he does. And I'm not his prisoner," Kouji snapped. She couldn't suppress a smile at him. He was so different; it was kind of entertaining.

"You should. Isn't he the one that gets you dinner? Or do his parents know about you...?" Izumi's curiosity was overtaking her, and she slowly approached him. He took several steps back, and she couldn't help but grin more. There was a similarity. They both seemed to have a personal bubble, but for obviously different reasons. Kouichi was shy, and his clone was severely weirded out by her.

"And if he hides you rather than you hiding yourself... then that means he must be forcing you to stay here. Let me guess, blackmail? He snapped a photo of you in a pink yutaka?"

"W-what?" Kouji stared at her, beyond disturbed at this point. He continued backing away. "I'm not Kouichi!"

"Oh, I know. Trust me, I know. Kouichi had a crush on me, and you seem to be creeped out by me," Izumi informed him casually, and his eye twitched. _That Kouichi guy... was insane to like this girl, _was all the ravenette could think regarding that.

"So, am I right?"

"No!" Kouji snarled. His eye twitched again when his back hit a wall. "I'd just rather not get the weird stares, all right?"He began scooting away from her along the wall. She chuckled.

"I see, I see." Izumi nodded, and ceased her approaching movements, figuring now was as a good time as any. Besides, she'd rather not have him feel like a rat trapped in a corner by a Cheshire cat. "Right right. Does that mean his parents don't know?"

"Of course not!" Kouji scowled, stopping his escape attempts as well. Perhaps if he didn't move...

"Right! Okay! Gotcha! That means you can't leave this room without Takuya, but you still don't know nor care where he is or how long he'll be gone for while at the same time his parents DO but they think he's somewhere he isn't. Am I right?" The blonde asked, hands on her hips as she peered at the clone.

"Err, yeah. Pretty much," Kouji mumbled, looking away. Her words were long-winded, and he had trouble catching exactly she was attempting to say.

"That totally makes sense. Because, you know... you seriously don't need him around. You're completely independent, right? Of course, otherwise you WOULD care. If you're hungry, by golly you'll be marching down those stairs proclaiming your existence for all the world to hear because you can take care of yourself! Yup yup! You just go along with Takuya because you feel like it, right? Get a kick out of making people do things for you." She nodded her head while she spoke, talking as though these were facts but her tone was sarcastic. He glowered.

"Look, what does it matter to you? I don't care, and he's not here so scram!" Kouji snarled, pointing at the door behind her. Her mouth tweaked again, as though she was yet again suppressing a smile. He was starting to hate that.

"Aren't you that girl that apologized? What happened to Miss Nice?"

"Nothing." Her ocean blue eyes locked onto his royal blue ones. "As for what it matters to me... I'm Takuya's friend. What's it matter to you?"

"Nothing," Kouji grumbled, though he wasn't quite as convincing in his words as she was. "Look, would you leave already?"

"I'm not going anywhere until Takuya is here," she stated, and then went over to sit at the chair by the desk. She raised a challenging brow at him. "See, unlike you I'm trying to help him. There's something I would like to tell him. It is irrelevant to me at this point what you think for I have already apologized for my rudeness, and you are not my friend nor anyone I've really associated with before. I could try to be your friend, but you don't seem keen on the idea so I won't even waste my time. However from what I can tell at school you've been giving Takuya a hard time, and I shall return the favor."

"Defending him?" Kouji asked, and rolled his eyes. "Nice, a girl has to protect him. That makes him look real good." Her mouth did that twitchy thing again.

"At least someone is defending him. Better than what anyone can say for you." Izumi stared him square in the eye. He thought back to the brunette's words, and what she just said. He glared, but had no response so merely stood in his spot while his anger simmered quietly. The two stared at each other. Every once in a while Izumi's mouth would twitch some, but Kouji's face was devoid of any expression. They went through several staring contests, the air in the room growing thick with the tension. After about an hour of such ridiculous challenges, someone came walking up the stairs. The door opened, and Takuya yelped as he was clobbered by the blonde.

"U-uh, Izumi? What are you doing here?" Takuya asked, raising a brow at her and utterly disregarding the clone.

"I have some news for you!" Izumi informed him, smiling excitedly. He continued to blink, more so surprised by her than anything else.

"Y-yeah?"

"All right, so Mimi and I were talking." Izumi pulled away from the hug while still gripping the shoulders of the perplexed brunette. "We've decided something. You know you can ask us for anything, right? Well, you haven't." She sighed, sweat-dropping at him. "But!" The blonde held an index finger centimeters from the brunette's nose, making his mahogany eyes cross to look at it. "We decided anyway. Everything you told us that happened... three mysterious people who seem to vanish overnight, how everything... seems to..." She closed her eyes and swallowed before continuing. "To point towards Kouichi knowing what would happen. Like how he acted, and... him." She motioned in the general direction of Kouji, who growled but was ignored. "The police aren't really investigating it. Like they're scared of something. So that means..." She poked his nose. "We're going to help you figure this out."

"What? But Izumi, that's not safe! What if they reappear because you're trying to dig up their trail and--"

"Mimi will be watching my back, while I watch hers. But I don't think either of us can sleep well at night until we figure out what's been going on and why. It's not normal. Besides... we can't let you try to figure this all out on your own." She smiled at Takuya genuinely, not playfully like she had to the clone. The brunette sighed, but half-heartedly returned her smile.

"I can't change your mind, can I?" Takuya asked, shaking his head and pushing her finger away.

"Just as I can't change yours," the blonde retorted jokingly, and then patted his head. "Also, before I go I thought you should know that that guy..." She waved at Kouji again who kept glaring at her. "I think he's scared of me. Am I scary?"

"...did you try to come at him with a hatchet or something...?" Takuya asked, giving her a wary expression while she laughed.

"No, must be my feminine charm." She batted her eyes, and the brunette rolled his.

"You came at him with a hatchet." Takuya sighed, shaking his head. "I thought there was more to you."

"You'd be surprised." The blonde winked, and went out the door. "Bye, be careful Takuya!" she called. The brunette shook his head, relieved, but unsure about what had just happened. He looked at Kouji.

"Did she seriously scare you?" Someone was in a good mood if he was talking to the clone again. Kouji found himself oddly glad about it, but blamed his empty stomach for that reaction. He ceased glaring.

"She creeped me out, there's a difference." The ravenette watched the other male close the door.

"Right. That's different. Usually people find her inviting, not... creepy. She must really dislike you." Takuya walked over to his dresser and pulled open a drawer, rifling through papers. "Where'd I put it...?"

"Nothing new to me," Kouji replied with a roll of his eyes, and took a hesitant step forward. "What... are you looking for?" He might as well take advantage of Takuya's calm to try and get back on his... not as angry side.

"Yeah, you really need to work on your people skills," Takuya agreed, brows furrowing as he continued to search. "Something to make me think. I'm running out of ideas to figure out how to track those guys down..."

"The three 'mysterious' people?" Kouji quirked a brow at the other.

"Yeah." Honestly, the brunette didn't want to talk to him but it wasn't in his nature to avoid conversation when his brain was on more important matters.

"Were... they the ones who killed him?" the clone pressed. Takuya stopped digging, and stood up as he looked over at the ravenette.

"What does it suddenly matter to you?" The brunette sighed. "Look, I'm sick of arguing with you. If you're trying to start something, go bicker with yourself in a corner."

"I'm not. Just... wondering." Kouji shrugged. "Nothing wrong with that. Or have I lost my privilege to be curious along with eating?"

"...Oh." Takuya blinked. "If you were hungry, why not complain like always?" He sighed, heading for the door.

"That's not..." Kouji started, but stopped.

"Not what?" Takuya asked, tilting his head. The clone was acting weird. What had the blonde done to him? ...did she seriously come after him with a sharp object? The ravenette sighed, and his eyes looked over in a random direction.

"Listen, and listen very carefully because I'm not going to repeat myself. All right? Look, I **acknowledge** that how I spoke of your... friend was wrong. Understand me?" Kouji demanded, still avoiding looking at the other. The brunette's eyes widened. Was the clone... seriously apologizing to him, in his own weird way? "Well?"

"Oh, uh... yes. I do." Takuya continued to blink, caught off-guard.

"And I won't... do it again intentionally. All right?" Kouji crossed his arms, as though he was in a huff in doing this. "There are some lines that I don't like crossing, and I... kind of did. Just letting you know I realize that now."

"You figured this out because you were hungry?" Takuya asked stupidly.

"What? No!" Kouji scowled, shaking his head at the other. Was it really so shocking? ...probably. He took a deep breath, trying to not lash out just because he was annoyed. "I realized that after you left, but everything you said was still there. Your... friend..." It was kind of sad. The clone couldn't even say Kouichi's name unless it was in distaste. But why? It couldn't have been from hatred. "I don't know him. I don't know you. I don't even know myself." He finally looked to the other, and while his face was serious his eyes... they were lost. "I've sat for an hour wondering... would I like anything other people do? What genre of book would I enjoy? Would I even like reading? Then I'd sit for another hour wondering... what you do with your life. All I see you do is bring my food, do homework, and then bicker with me. You have stuff in here... it doesn't seem like something you've always done. And my answer to your question yesterday... it was vague. I would live? There's so many ways to live, isn't there?"

"...yeah." Takuya nodded. There were all kinds of ways. And even more reasons to do so... he smiled. The clone raised a brow. "You know what I just realized?"

"Eh?" Kouji's brow rose higher, wondering if something was about to be said to kill his one moment of acceptance towards the other.

"We have something in common." Takuya laughed lightly. "Neither of us know why we're living." The clone blinked, before giving a half-smile.

"Are you serious? What about your family?" Kouji inquired, his surprisedexpression remaining. This was... interesting. To not argue.

"Yeah and... Kouji?"

"Mmm?"

"That's the first time I've seen you even attempt to smile the entire time you've been here," the brunette chuckled. The clone's expression became surprised.

"And that's the first time I've heard you laugh." The two stared at each other, utterly befuddled by this anomaly. They honestly had no clue how to react to the other not giving a negative expression. In a way, it was a relieving kind of foreign experience.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor have any affiliation whatsoever with Digimon nor its creators.  
**A/N:** Holy skittle monkeys there are people reading this! ...curses. I guess I'll have to make more time for this in-between classwork and videogames. Oh well! I'll get over it, as it sounds like your guys are enjoying it so far. Hope you all continue to have fun with this... well, I'd love to call it nonsense but this interesting thing called plot will start rearing its ugly head after some character development. (Oh, and don't worry about reviewing if you don't want to/have the time to. I just wanted to verify I wasn't wasting my time uploading this, hah. _Would totally still write it in her freetime though, lulz.)_ You all take care! See you next chapter.


	10. Our Questions, Their Mystery

_Eyes that are empty, with emotions brimming over the rim of your imitated life. The silent purr of that reality you claim is not but a dream echoing in your ears, falling in tune with the beat of your clockwork heart. This isn't a love song - it's an elegy for the man you never were._

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_

Slipping on a jacket, as the days had become somewhat chilly as of late, Kouji's eyes strayed over to the nearest window. He had a conversation with Takuya. There was very little they spoke about, but during the entirety of the time they did not yell. Glare. Or hate. The experience had been new and refreshing, with a sense of calm still settling inside of him. The morning was still fresh with the sun's rays, and the silence of the house was reassuring for a youth with plans to sneak out even though he was supposed to wait. He merely couldn't. How could he?

The few topics that the two could exchange without one of them getting uncomfortable was simple and basic: Kouichi ordering his own clone. From the memories that Takuya had regarding his friend's visage, body language, and change of attitude with the robbers they could almost assert for a fact the teen knew he would die. The previous night was full of firsts for the clone… he gave a wry smile as he recollected their exchange of awkward words while getting ready.

For the first time, Kouji permitted the brunette to speak of his predecessor without insulting the dead male. And in a weird, peculiar way the clone was surprised to find a foreign feeling show itself as Takuya spoke so fondly of Kouichi. He didn't know precisely what the emotion was; all he could make of it was that he did not like it. The sensation felt negative… there was still some kind of hostility he felt towards the original. He could only guess it was because those were the only types of feelings he would let himself have towards Kouichi forl now.

Even so, the clone felt he could trust Takuya's thoughts and memories on the deceased. However because of this, it led to one increasingly troubling matter. Why? They couldn't figure any reason out. Why would Kouichi clone himself? Kouji cringed at the curious thought, still unfond of thinking of himself as one. Yet, that was what he was and he had to accept it. Perhaps if he did that, he could work his way to be something more.

"Ugh, why am I even worrying about this?" Kouji sighed with a tired voice, rubbing his face with both hands. "The guy's dead - not like he'll crawl out of the grave to explain it to us." He grumbled, and letting his hands slide down until they plopped onto his sides. "…in a weird way, he did." The clone noted, raising his left eyebrow whilst looking down at himself. "If the guy was so smart why didn't he leave a note? Or even better, why the hell did he claim it was Takuya that tried all of this?" He wondered aloud, asking questions to no one and yet still somehow finding himself to be expecting answers.

He didn't wait for what he hoped to receive, instead he chose to proceed with what he knew he should not do… but he wanted to. Takuya was busy dealing with school, family, and questions that plagued them both. The clone wanted to help, if even somewhat, to take away some of that stress. Especially because a good portion of it was from him. Heading out of the house, Kouji cautiously peaked out of the windows once downstairs. He did not want to risk the brunette's parents seeing him, or some neighbor catching sight of him. He figured this time would be the best to sneak out - everyone under about the age of eighteen was in school, most adults were working, and lunch was still far off enough for the clone to leave and make it back without missing the next meal.

Slowly opening the door, a splash of cold zigzagged across his spine as it creaked. The sound was unpleasant, and obnoxiously loud to the pair of ears which were attached to someone who was terrified of getting caught. He knew his mind over-exaggerated the noise but it did not stop the creeping nervousness on its continuous escalation. Taking a deep breath in, he closed it behind himself and ensured that it had been locked. He wasn't worried about getting in - unlike a wandering thief wanting to break into a home he knew precisely where to go if he wanted to get inside. Takuya's room window was unlocked, and cracked open slightly. Naturally, the clone had planned ahead.

Blue eyes scanned the area once more; yup, still clear. With a nod to reassure himself it would be okay, Kouji began his trek towards his destination. On occasion he'd pass by someone, and they'd turn to another only to whisper. He would simply scowl at these reactions, more annoyed by them than frightened. He could not hear what they mumbled about, but he knew it regarded him. The very idea of being seen as a replacement still brought forth anger.

His pace would alter between slow and hastened, often only increasing when thinking of what would happen if he did not complete his mission quick enough. For reasons far beyond even his own recognition however, the clone never once stopped to ponder as to why he knew his way towards his destination so well… especially considering he himself had never been there or given directions. He simply went. That was all there was to it.

There. He had reached what he wanted. Taking a deep breath and hoping luck was on his side, he took a step in. This could get extremely… uncomfortable. And awkward. But he had a ready excuse on hand if he did. Oh, what clever thoughts ran through his mind when he wanted to prove himself. White acacias greeted him, their bloom in full and surrounded by multitudes of other flowers. There, sitting at the desk was a young woman with satin pink lips and green dreadlocks that fell over her shoulders…

"…pardon me." Kouji called softly, and blinked when feeling his voice had just barely come out. Though it was low, it did not go unheard.

"Yes, how may I-" The woman froze the second she looked up from her work. Her eyes already enlarged from her glasses somehow grew in size from shock, and her perfect mouth hung plainly open taking away the flowery beauty they otherwise naturally held. "…" Her gaze refused to remove itself from him, even as he shifted uncomfortably. "How did you…?"

"I'm his twin." Kouji said quickly, hoping this excuse would work. Just his luck. The woman who was there when Kouichi was shot, was here now. At his words though, he was surprised to see her almost laugh. A sarcastic, somewhat deranged one and so he felt very fortunate it barely came out before she choked it down.

"I was at his service. He does not have one." Yuri informed him, and then slowly made her way around the counter. She kept one gloved hand on the solid surface, while she wobbled some in her movements. For someone who probably felt like she was seeing a ghost, she was handling this quite well. Better than most, this was for sure.

"…right." Kouji kept his eyes on her, unsure what to make of this development. Hopefully she would not go crazy on him. Sometimes people that took things overly-well were worse off than others. "I need to ask you a favour." If this was the case, he would much rather get straight to the point and get away as quickly as possible.

"A favour?" Yuri stopped, staring at him with a face devoid of any emotion. She was a blank slate, standing there frozen like a locked up computer. "Sure, sure… a favour. What is it?" She inquired, quickly trying to regain her wobbly composure. This was certainly going better than he could have hoped… was guilt driving the woman?

"Yes. I don't know if you still have it, but I was curious if you could give me the video… of when…" Kouji did not bother to think up to this point. How should he word it? He could not think of any nice way to ask, and if this woman was only listening to him from sheer guilt alone… well, all right. He felt bad. His question sparked a peculiar light in her eyes, and she immediately dashed out of the room. So quick was her movements, she nearly knocked into a potted tree but managed to catch herself in time. Within minutes she had returned, though she would shift from side to side and glance around nervously. Her actions were suddenly very sketchy…

"I need you to promise me a few things." Yuri whispered, getting closer to him. She motioned for him to approach her further, as whatever it was she was suddenly frightened of kept her in place now. Kouji watched her with a bemused expression, and to simply humor her came closer. "Be. Careful." She ordered. "When you're done, you must return this tape to me. They can't know it ever left the store, and don't mention it to police. Far as they're aware, the security camera wasn't working."

"What?" Kouji hissed, eyes narrowing. The woman was withholding evidence? No wonder the police could not find the culprits!

"Ssh!" Yuri squeaked, holding up a finger over her lips. "Ssh, be quiet… look. Watch the tape, and you'll understand. I promise." She nodded, and then roughly forced it into the clone's hands. "Please, be safe…" She continued, walking backwards away from him while shaking her head. "You've no idea what's going on. But I promise, you'll know. Soon. Be safe, please… be safe."

...

....

...

An oleander. It had been inside the video case, and Kouji had found himself staring at it most of the time he spent waiting. The florist had told him he' would understand when he watched the video… but he could not do that until Takuya returned home. Her words of warning haunted him though. "_When you're done, you must return this tape to me. They can't know it ever left the store…", I don't think she was talking about the police. Was it the robbers?_ The clone let his thoughts swarm around these mere words.

What was going on at that flower shop? What was on the tape that the police were not allowed to see? Who exactly was 'they'? Did Kouichi truly know he was going to die? If so, why did he order the clone? In fact… if he did not know, why did he? He quickly snapped up. "Was she… waiting for me?" He asked, blue eyes slowly widening. The tape was so perfectly packaged - she could not have done it in the state she was in when he saw her. "Or… was she waiting for Takuya?" …maybe both.

"Kouji?" Takuya's voice could be heard downstairs, as the brunette called out to the other. He must have just returned from school, and no parents were present. Good. Just as well. Not wanting to wait any longer, the clone grabbed both the tape and flower to go meet the other. "Hey Kou - wow, you got here quick." Takuya blinked, surprised to see how eager the clone was to greet him. Then he saw the tape. "…" The brunette began a toss-up, be ready to strangle the other or at least give him a chance to explain.

"I know. I shouldn't have, but I did." Kouji sighed, understanding that look. The odds were more in favour of Takuya throttling him for this, so he would just explain before those hands set down the bag. "Come on, we have to watch it. Now. Throw a hissy fit later if it bothers you that much." The clone ordered, grabbing the brunette's wrist with his freehand and began to try and forcefully drag the other with.

"Hey!" Takuya protested, immediately pulling back in an attempt to resist the other. "But - I'm hungry! And you - you're supposed to be whining about food! Just - gah! Let go! Look, the tape can wait… and… how'd you get that!?" He demanded, still trying to not be pulled along with the clone and yet he found himself stumbling along due to Kouji's stubbornness.

"We'll eat afterwards." Kouji growled, his patience quickly fading away. The brunette was here. Tape. Watch. Now. Then food. "I just went into the flower shop, and she gave it to me when I asked." He answered curtly, and then found an obstacle in his way. Getting the brunette up the stairs without them falling because a certain someone was still resisting the inevitable. "She was being really weird, so come on." He would only tolerate so much of this before he snapped. Really.

"Weird? How so?" Takuya inquired, his voice light with confusion but full of curiosity.

"…I'll tell you if you'll come with me up the stairs." Kouji offered, a half forced smile on his face while his right brow twitched in irritation. "And if you still refuse, I **will** forcefully carry you up there." Someone just lost the last of his patience.

"…" Takuya weighed his options. On one hand, he could eat. On the other hand he would not be carried up the stairs by Kouji and learn all the details. Even watch the tape. But at the same time… on one hand he was delaying rewatching that day, and on the other he was going to see it sooner. "I'm not refusing. I'm just not doing it right away…" The brunette mumbled, his own special attempt at avoiding the inevitable.

"…that's pathetic." Kouji sighed, shaking his head. Takuya tried to jolt away, but the clone held on tightly - naturally because they had both leaned forward and disturbed one another's stable momentum they fell into a tumbled heap on the ground. Both stubborn and not one to give up so easily, Takuya took his chance to try and crawl away from the current threat while Kouji stood back up with a rather menacing expression. "Hold it!" The clone snapped, and yanked the other closer to him. With a yelp, the brunette found himself being semi-lifted and dragged back to his rather cruel charge.

"Kouji! Look, just… WAIT UNTIL WE EAT!" Takuya yelled, flailing about. His movements became more urgent when the clone tried to pick him up - which was not necessarily a good idea because then they both fell backwards on the stairs. "…"

"…" At that moment, Kouji could almost kill Takuya. Almost. "…what's for lunch?" He grumbled, finally caving into what the other wanted.

"Oh, I dunno… I was thinking sandwiches or something." The brunette shrugged, as he awkwardly moved away from their second heap of bruised limbs.

"You gave me all that trouble… for sandwiches? No. I just fell up your stairs. You are making us something better than that." Kouji growled, pushing himself up.

"Fine. Picky picky…" Takuya complained, heading to the kitchen to make them a worthwhile dinner-type of meal.

"I'm not picky. I'm just saying. You injure me because you have a weak stomach, so you better make my pain worthwhile because you're a pansy." Kouji muttered, following after and leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Say all you want about me being a pansy, I'm not the one holding a flower." Takuya snickered, gathering supplies together to make them a veggie tray.

"…" Kouji's eyes looked down at the oleander he was still holding. "This came with the tape." He explained, and then resumed his gaze on the lazy chef. "Are you serious?"

"I can make sandwiches too." Takuya joked, giving a small smile at his own words. "It came with the tape…? So the flower girl just gave you a flower with it or something?"

"You might as well." Kouji rolled his eyes, but found a grin tug at his lips. "No. The tape was in a case, and so was this." He held up the flower some for the brunette to see better. "And it took her no time at all to get it, so I doubt she packaged it up while I waited."

"All right, two sandwiches it is then." Takuya nodded. He listened to the clone, but he progressively got slower in his preparations for their meal as the other went on. "Like… she was…"

"Waiting?" Kouji finished, raising a brow at the other and lowered the oleander. "Yeah. I think she was waiting for me. Maybe even you. She also told me to be careful, return this to her when I was finished because 'they' can't find out it ever left the store…"

"Who is 'they'?" Takuya queried, his brows furrowing as he left the vegetables and sandwiches alone to give his full attention to the clone.

"No idea. I have guesses… rough assumptions, but that's all they are. There's no backing, no evidence. And the weirdest thing was she told me after I watched it I'd understand why the police weren't aware there was even a tape." Kouji continued on, and held up the VHS as though to further prove his point.

"…she didn't…" Takuya repeated quietly to himself.

"She told the police their security camera wasn't working or something… whatever's on here Takuya, obviously it's something big. Whatever happened on that day with you, those robbers, her, and Kouichi… it might be able to explain me and what they were probably really after." As Kouji figured at this point, those robbers were not after money. They were after something bigger, that went beyond pretty little sheets of money and shiny bits of metal.

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**Disclaimer:** In no way do I own Digimon, its characters, nor have any sort of association with them. It may have taken me ten years to finally come slightly to grips with this but... after a few more sessions of Digi-Addicts Anonymous (DAA) I think I might finally finish coming to terms with this fact.  
**A/N:** BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!! You actually thought I was going to let you see the video yet? Come now, I'm not that nice yet. xD Also, I am curious to see if anyone has theories as to what is actually going on yet. Please feel free to share! I cannot confirm if you are correct or not, but I would love to know if I am doing a good job of keeping this mysterious or not! xD (Also, if the grammar and whatnot sucked in this... it is because I think I lost the corrected version my beta sent me. I tried to fix it myself, but unlike her I have no idea what I am doing.)


	11. Our Warning, Their Appearence

_Faith is based on what is invisible, intangible. Faith itself is merely a belief in itself, as it is merely felt from within. Never has thine eyes seen it, touched it with living hands, or spoke with it. Riddle we this: "Trust is given just as it is taken. However, one must be careful that it is never broken." Replication born of wires and clocks rather than veins and heart… is there really such a thing as trust?_

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_

"…" Takuya watched the clone for a moment, before turning back to the tray and tossing everything on there. "Let's go." He said quietly, already heading up the stairs. Kouji raised a brow, but did not object or complain about the abrupt change. He could not blame the brunette. The more he thought about the answers the tape might contain, the more impatient he became as well. Naturally, he hurried after the other.

Inside the brunette's room the two went straight away to setting up the old VCR, connecting it to the television that until then had been quietly waiting to be used once more. Takuya pushed in the power button, and watched as its screen came alive for the first time in nearly two and a half months with the colours as vivid at that moment as they were last.

The tape started at twelve in the morning, right on the dot at the start of a new day. The flowers were quiet, and the atmosphere silent. No one was inside, and the cyanotype colouration of the video made for a dreary monochrome visual. Though flowers were lively and colourful, the nighttime and dismal feel to the shop took away the cheery attitude held toward the otherwise beautiful plants. Moonlight gave the petals and leaves a halo around them, along with the room an almost otherworldly sense. It was haunting.

"Should we fast-forward?" Kouji inquired, looking over to the brunette who had almost been entranced by how different the place looked now in comparison to then. He snapped out of it.

"Oh, err… yeah. To late in the evening. I'll fast-forward, and you tell me when it gets past four in the afternoon, and that's when we'll really have to start looking." Takuya directed, and hit the button. The long strands of tape within the VHS began to roll faster, and the lines on the screen progressively grew as the lights started to change. The halos moved as the moon's position changed, while the hours began to be sped up on the day that hopefully kept all their answers.

It sped faster. Time was flying quickly on a mere screen, hurrying into the morning of a day already past. Yuri entered the store and began to set it up. Customers arrived once she opened the flower shop. They would browse, peer, tinker, and even offer to help her water them or reposition them nearer to the sun's rays that dribbled all through the windows like the water from the sprout of a canteen. Blurred faces, with outfits that ranged from casual to professional; endless types of people meandered in and out.

The afternoon had arrived now, with the sun beaming in stronger than it had hours ago. The flowers were lively, the hues in vibrant blues and no longer ethereal as the moonlight once claimed them to be. Yuri was as jubilant then as she was when she first arrived, which showed her passion for the garden she worked in. The acacias were being arranged. It was one in the afternoon now. The timer at the top left corner rolled to two, and now the florist was messing with the anemones. Three ticked on, and now she was fiddling with the oleanders… and went into the back with a single one.

"…" Kouji said nothing, but glanced over at Takuya to see if he noticed. If he did, he made no comment about it so the clone let it be for the moment. When the numbers finally hit four, Yuri was back out and greeting a young man around her age. "All right, it's time." He announced to the brunette, who merely nodded his head and put his finger over the play button. The two viewers no longer spoke, and it almost appeared as though the pair being watched were flirting. The florist would sway from side to side, while the young man with short hair would scratch the back of his head shyly.

Eventually he left, and the setting sun's light was casting a morbid shadow over the room. Or maybe it just looked that way to the two youths. "Stop it." Kouji hissed, instantly recognizing the two males who had just entered the store. Takuya pushed down on the pause button, and they stared. Exchanging short glances, Takuya then pressed on play once more. Yuri was at the counter, and looked up to smile at them as they walked inside. She spoke to them, and Kouichi looked down giving her his stuttered response.

The brunette felt himself tense, as he watched that day go by once more. Watched that moment all over again, from a pair of eyes that were not his. It was so surreal to see Kouichi moving, talking once more. It scared him. Kouji watched, kind of entranced to see whose DNA he had stolen. The pair silently observed the interactions between the original duo and Yuri, right down to the very last detail of the florist reading Kouichi's note to Izumi.

It came to where the florist was peering around her store trying to find the flowers, with the two eyes trying to keep up with her. This was where Takuya could see what the back of his head never did. This would explain why he never heard the three robbers enter through the door of the shop. Just like ghosts the woman and two men slid right inside the store as though they were no more tangible than the frightened emotion crawling up the brunette's spine as he watched them defy the logic that he once knew.

Yuri frowned, before her expression developed into that of fear. The exchange began… starting with demands for money and the florist. Takuya could still hear their voices, and remember exactly what they said. He mouthed it all, while his stomach felt as though skinks cold as ice clambered all around inside of it. His heart wanted to stop when the raspy man pointed at Kouichi. That was where it would all come down.

"Three." Takuya whispered, right down to the very second that the woman did in the tape. Kouji jumped from the sudden sound, and then watched exactly what Kouichi and the brunette had seen. Only this time, he really saw it. The weapon was not a gun. Guns did not move. Guns did not have eyes. Guns did not shoot out bursts of flames, before a small object pierced right into Kouichi.

Bullets that hit there, did not kill instantly.

...

....

...

"Are you sure you saw nothing like that?" Kouji asked again, watching as the somewhat panicked Takuya paced around his own room. Their dinner remained completely untouched, and the tape was heard rewinding behind them. It was nighttime at this point, as fast-forwarding on a VCR's regular speed for more than sixteen hours took more than a few minutes.

"No. I didn't. I never saw them enter, or heard them… know why now." Takuya gave a dry, sarcastic laugh as he continued to hurry around in his room with no destination or real desire to really get anywhere with his feet. "They were like… silhouettes when it happened. Shadows, almost. I don't even get why the camera caught them so picture perfectly. I mean, you'd think they'd be just as obscured to it as it was to me… not that I'm complaining. Of course, I feel utterly crazy now…" He vented, running a hand through his hair. It still hurt.

"…" Kouji looked to the VHS. "Maybe it wasn't a normal camera." He suggested, and looked to the brunette. "Did you notice that the florist took one oleander from the rest before you guys arrived? On the tape, I mean."

"No…" Takuya said slowly, stopping in his tracks to look at the other. "She did?"

"Yeah. And what was with the tape?" Kouji inquired, crossing his arms and looking at the other.

"A single oleander…" Takuya mumbled, looking over at the flower. "But wouldn't it have withered and died by now? It's been more than two months…"

"Wonder if she replaced it then." Kouji mumbled. He forgot that flowers died that fast; obviously it was not the same one. Even so, Takuya went over to the oleander curiously. He plucked one petal off of it - the second it was removed another sprang up to replace it.

"…I don't think she did." Takuya breathed, staring at the flower's ability to replenish itself.

"That's one heck of a flower store she's running." Kouji stated, unsure what else to say about it. "Okay… so we have ghosts with a living weapon, and a florist who sells flowers that are capable of rejuvenation."

"Kouichi… that ordered you, so he must have known something was going to happen at that flower shop. But why didn't he say anything? And why did he go…?" Takuya whispered, looking up at the ceiling. He blinked away the rising moisture in his eyes. He could not understand his friend's choices, that sudden change in personality…

"Also, how did Kouichi even know where Wolf was? I mean when you think about it, they're kind of out of the way…" Kouji added on, recalling how secretive they were about their location. Kouichi must have been really playing a detective on those old buildings to locate them.

""Damnit, this doesn't explain anything." Takuya growled, shaking his head. "I thought it was supposed to help."

"At least we know why she didn't give it to the police. They'd call it a glitch and probably just toss it as evidence." Kouji muttered in an almost sour tone.

"Likely. But at least they'd know what those murdering bastards looked like." Takuya stated, his face contorted as though he had a bad taste in his mouth just by mentioning their existence.

"They walked through a wall." Kouji sighed, looking over at the brunette. "It's little wonder no one's seen them since. Look even with an actual picture instead of a drawn depiction, do you think it would be any easier to track down or even arrest the kind of person who just ignores the laws of physics?"

"…" Takuya had no response to that. "Do you think we should talk to Wolf about this? I mean, he does clone people for a living. That's not exactly normal… it might not do much, but at least we might know how Kouichi found out about them. That might lead us somewhere else." His tone had quieted some, and the brunette was looking back at the empty blue screen of his television with a large '03' at the right corner. Even though Wolf had initially believed Takuya to be the purchaser, surely the man would have an idea as to how anyone would find a way to contact him?

"It wouldn't hurt." Kouji agreed, giving a faint nod of his head. "I can drop this back off at the flower shop tomorrow while you're in school, and when you get back home we can go to Wolf's together."

"No." Takuya snapped, looking at the clone with a slightly agitated expression. "We'll drop the tape off together. I want to ask… Yuri, I think her nametag said, a few questions. More than just how'd she know you would come."

"…fine." Kouji smiled some, shaking his head. "So tell me, what am I supposed to do all day?" He asked with a raised brow. The brunette grinned over at him, and motioned over at his laptop. "…am I writing a report?"

"No." Takuya shook his head, and motioned for the clone to come over. With a reluctant sigh, Kouji dragged himself over there. "I need you to… research yourself in a way. Like… I don't know, try and find out how all of this is connected. Let's face it. In some kind of way, everything has something to do with each other. Those people… they wanted the florist and Kouichi, I think. I was the only one who was told to go in the back… they wanted him to stay. It was as though he knew what was going on, and then he made the decision to… you know." It was strange. Takuya felt embarrassed now to point out the crucial difference between himself and well… the clone.

"Yeah. I know." Kouji chuckled some, amused at how uncomfortable the brunette seemed to be with it. It was relieving… he felt like Takuya would rather see him as a normal person than just a replication. "Hey… for all you know, maybe he didn't have all the little details about cloning. Perhaps he thought we were born, and just did as we were told. No personality, or something. Got me ordered to throw them off?"

"It's possible." Takuya mumbled, looking up. "But if that's the case, it just explains you. That's it. Still doesn't add up though. I mean, Wolf explained it to me…"

"Maybe there was no time?" Kouji suggested with a shrug. "No matter how we look at it though… I suppose I can kill some time looking up stuff online. Cloning, living weapons… ghosts." He added on, thinking about the 'robbers'. "Pray not too many sci-fi and supernatural lies follow along. I can't guarantee you anything, but I'll definitely try."

"…thanks." Takuya smiled appreciatively at the clone. "I'll help you investigate other things after school for the rest of the week too. Do you think I should fill Izumi and Mimi in on all of this?"

"**No.** Florist chick warned us to be careful. It's getting really weird, and obviously it's dangerous enough for her to get scared just talking about it… whatever it is. They're your friends right? You don't want to put them in danger." Kouji had to put his two cents in for this. True, he could not stand the blonde but it went far deeper than that. For him, he had just witnessed Takuya lose one close friend. The clone did not want to see the brunette lose anyone else.

"…well, when you put it that way…" Takuya trailed, mulling over the clone's words. "You shouldn't get involved either." He stated bluntly, flicking the ravenette in the forehead.

"Hey." Kouji scowled, rubbing the spot that had been attacked. He then blinked, thinking about just what exactly that meant. "…tch. I'm not your friend. I mooch off of you to escape that crazy wrench. I only help because you can't handle it alone, and if something happens to you… Wolf will blame me, and ship me off."

"…I'm sure." Takuya smiled, and tried his best to not look like he disbelieved it as much as he did. That was okay. Kouji did not believe his own words either. "All right. We'll work on this together. But if you sneak out one more time…" He glared, but it's intimidating effects were lost because the brunette just could not manage one as dangerous as the clone could.

"Yeah yeah yeah, save it for someone who cares." Kouji scoffed… with the trace of a soft smile.

...

....

...

Tueday afternoon. The air was still chilly, but the skies were clear and open. Regardless of the lower temperatures, it was a beautiful day full of clouds surrounded by the prettiest of silver linings. Takuya and Kouji walked together towards the flower shop, tape and oleander in hand as they traveled. The duo ignored people whispering as they passed, and little children who squealed with playful fright as they imitated those around them that knew Kouichi. The pair spent their travel in silence, each trying to memorize their own questions for when they arrived. It was worth hoping that the woman would be less ambiguous, and more helpful. Perhaps less fearful, as well.

The brunette had his hands stuffed into his red windbreaker, left unzipped so that the cool zephyrs would hit the exposed areas of his plain yellow long-sleeved shirt. As though to balance out the warmth on his torso, the young man had on a pair of blue denim shorts that reached down to his knees. Regular red and white sneakers were tied tightly, helping the white socks keep the feet inside warm. He wore his usual hat and goggles on his head, hiding away his unruly brown hair. Walking next to him, Kouji had on a simple white tee and a dark blue jacket. The zipper was pulled as far up as the clone could bring it without it choking him, wanting the chills to be held back as much as possible. Unlike his strange 'guardian', he wore denim jeans and a pair of black boots. He wanted to remain warm, and they were better insulated than any mere shoe.

The afternoon was still young, only around five. The sun would not be setting for about another two or three hours, so they were free from any familiar instances. "Hey, you hear that?" Kouji asked, looking up from his thoughts. It sounded like sirens.

"Yeah…" Takuya answered shortly, before bolting off in a run. The clone quickly dashed after him, but was surprised to see how much faster the brunette moved. Perhaps all those years with soccer had indeed left their mark. Going at a full-blown run, the two hurried to where the sounds were coming from with their dread nipping at their heels.

"All right, so when'd you notice she was missing?" An officer asked, looking at a young man with short brown hair and turquoise blue eyes. He was in his early twenties, and appeared panicked. Actually, he looked kind of familiar…

"W-well, I c-called her around t-twelve to ask her i-if she wanted to c-come with me to lu-lunch…" The young man stammered, sitting on the hood of a police car while his eyes would occasionally dart around. There were two vehicles there, both with their sirens blaring and flashing their lights brightly in front of the floral shop. Warning tape was plastered all around the store, with three other officers inspecting the perimeter.

"I see. All right, and then what?" The officer speaking with the twenty-year old was scribbling down the other's words, patiently listening to the entirety of the story.

"Sh-she didn't answer so I a-assumed that she was busy… s-sometimes the st-store gets hectic." He went on, hugging himself and rubbing his arms on occasion to retain heat. "W-well… I waited a few minutes, and th-then tried again. Still, n-no answer. Guessed she was st-still busy. My lunch break was over by then… s-so I figured I'd just drop by later." As the story progressed, his stammering became more infrequent. He must have been settling down as he remembered, which made the officers job easier of writing it.

"Was she here when you came here later? Or did she ask you to wait, and then never returned?" The police man inquired, looking to the younger male. The brunette shook his head.

"When I got here, the store was still open. B-but she… wasn't there. At all. No note, no 'out' sign there. Listen, she loves this place. She'd never just leave it for no good reason. Call me paranoid if you like, but after those robbers two months ago I can't help but panic. She's missing! All right? And last night when we talked, she sounded kind of nervous. Then on her cell phone, there were all these weird glitches… like, it'd ring and then we'd hear some kind of… of… I don't know, scream. It was horrible… I didn't want her to go home last night. And I walked her home, and to work this morning…"

"So there's been a lot of strange occurrences?" The officer asked, brows going up in surprise. "Hmm… well, listen. If she still doesn't show up by tomorrow, we'll help you file a missing persons report. But for now, we'll close up the store and keep it on close watch. You got to remember, they aren't considered missing unless they've been gone for more than twenty-four hours. All right?" He placed a consoling hand on the young man's back. "Keep us updated if anything else weird happens. And… pray that she's all right." He added, giving another pat before going to the other police car. Both Takuya and Kouji exchanged concerned expressions. So somewhere between the time Yuri got to work, and the afternoon she had gone missing. They looked at the tape.

"Wait. He was the guy visiting her." The younger brunette whispered, looking to the clone.

"…you're right. Think they're dating?" Kouji asked in a hushed voice, looking between the two.

"Maybe. Should we approach him?" Takuya wondered, thinking about it.

"You can. If he knows about the shooting, he might know what Kouichi looks like too. He already looks shaken enough as it is, let's not give him any more reasons to be." Kouji sighed, and moved back in the crowd some. "I'll wait by that store." He motioned over to a nearby coffee shop, before heading over there by himself.

"All right." Takuya watched him go, smiling some. As of late… the guy seemed to be obtaining a sense of consideration. In two mere days the clone had… changed. A lot. The brunette could not help but wonder if all of Kouji's anger had been spent and this was what remained. Shaking away these thoughts, Takuya walked over to where the elder was and hoped no officer would stop him. Apparently not - their attention was on everything in and just on the outside of it rather than what went on around the floral shop. Getting to his elder, he coughed some. "Uhm, excuse me…" The older brunette snapped up, and his eyes widened looking at the younger.

"Takuya?" The man blinked, his voice startled. "What are you doing here? Never thought we'd meet here…"

"I came to… wait, how do you know my name? And what do you mean, meet?!" The younger brunette demanded, eyes narrowing as he took a step back.

"Oh, s-sorry!" The man yelped, holding up both hands. "I guess Tomoki doesn't talk about me like Shinya talks about you… eheh. I'm Yutaka. Tomoki's older brother." He explained, giving a soft nod.

"You are?" Takuya looked at him cautiously. Yes, he was actually. Same eye colour, and hair colour. Their features were similar as well, although Yutaka's were (naturally) more mature than his sibling's. "Guess so." That explained it. Oh, awkward. "Well… what are you doing here?"

"I came to check on my girlfriend, Yuri. She's gone missing… I told her I'd be by later, so I know she isn't out wandering." Yutaka sighed, eyes going downcast. "And with all these weird things lately… I can't help but worry. And you! What are you doing around here? After what happened, I'd figure you'd never come here again."

"Yeah well, some things came up. And I kind of wanted to check on her… she was there too, you know?" Takuya shrugged, looking away from the other not wanting to lie to his face. It just felt wrong. The elder sighed.

"That would make sense. But hey, I'm glad to see you doing something like this." Yutaka forced a smile, and patted the younger on the head. "Shinya's been telling us how down you've been since then… starting to heal a little?" He asked, almost hopefully.

"…yeah. A little." Takuya nodded, looking back at the other. Strange as it was, it was true. And thanks to, of all people, Kouji.

"Hey, is that an oleander?" Yutaka inquired curiously, noticing the flower and tape. "Rent something?"

"Err, yeah… a movie." Takuya mumbled, and quickly shook that lie off to stare the other in the eyes. "You know what kind of flower this is?" He asked incredulously.

"Of course! I'm dating a florist, she tells me all kinds of things about them." Yutaka laughed. "And I just said it was an oleander, did I not?" He chuckled some, running a hand through his hair. "Ahh… I needed that." He sighed, closing his blue eyes before slowly opening them once more. "Hmm… let's see. Depending on your views, it has a lot of meanings to it. Some believe it deals with romance and beauty, while others think it symbolizes to beware. Heh, she told me that on our first date… I got her a bunch of oleanders, you see."

"…it does?" Takuya inquired quietly, looking down at the flower. "_Yeah. I think she was waiting for me. Maybe even you. She also told me to be careful, return this to her when I was finished because 'they' can't find out it ever left the store…"_ echoed Kouji's words from the day before. He knew who they were now. "Yutaka, thank you so much for all of this! I wish you luck in getting contact back with Yuri, but I have to go now!" With that said, Takuya hurried off over to the coffee shop while waving to Tomoki's older brother.

"Ah w-well… you're welcome. Hey! Be safe!" Yutaka yelled back. The younger brunette skidded to a halt in front of Kouji, who was raising a brow at his urgency.

"Something happened, I take it?" He wondered with a lazy, but mildly interested visage.

"Oleanders… they can mean to beware." Takuya gasped, holding the flower up as though to emphasize his point. "She told us… to be careful. Added the flower… for extra I guess."

"…" Kouji's brows then furrowed together, and he took the flower from the brunette's hand. "So there was a point to the flower. How'd she know it was that day? And did she know that…?"

"I couldn't tell you." Takuya shook his head. "But I think…" He looked around nervously, licking his lips as he did so to push away the dry sensation building on them. He moved closer to the clone's ear and whispered, "That 'they' might be those three. And I think they may have been the ones to have dragged her off."

"And they didn't want the tape to leave because of what was on it." Kouji mumbled, looking at the video clenched in the brunette's other hand.

"Probably. So…" Takuya went on, taking a deep breath as he moved away from the other.

"If you have the tape, you have to be careful." Kouji finished, nodding his head in understanding. "Just great. All right." He took in a deep breath, and nodded. "We should get to Wolf then."

"Hey, maybe he can help us figure the rest out." Takuya grinned wryly, and took the clone's hand. "Come on, let's get going while we still have sunlight on…" He stopped, watching as a shadow slowly came to loom over them. "…our…" Mahogany eyes slowly moved as their owner turned his head to see why. The silhouette of a woman, cloaked in both shadow and heavy clothing. "…side."

* * *

**Disclaimer: **Nnnnope. Still don't own nor have any affiliation with Digimon, its characters, or its creators. Just another hopeless fangirl.  
**A/N: **So like, I totally forgot about the whole thing where I threatened to take this down if no one reviewed, until someone brought that back to my attention. Cripes, I sounded so MEAN. I'm really sorry, guys. Like, I don't know what crawled up my butt, but DUDE! I'm majorly sorry I was so mean. Please forgive my attitude, it was never intended to come off that way. Anywho, my favourite chapter is neeexxt. MOST ILLOGICAL CHAPTER EVER, BUT I JUST DON'T CARE! I NEEDED FLUFF, AND I NEEDED IT BAAAAD. What am I talking about? In what way is it illogical...? Well, I wouldn't be a meanie if I told you, now would I? Muahahah...


	12. Our Delight, Their Presence

_Cultivate those dreams of yours, piece them together bit by bit. When one does not fit with another, make sure to then force it. Smash it to make sense. Take logic by its throat, and rip off the scales to let them scatter over your dreams mismatched by your words. Then, you will understand. Then you will see. That the unbelievable, does not ever bleed._

* * *

"…she's watching the store," Kouji whispered, his eyes having followed after Takuya's. It was true. The silhouetted figure had its attention on the store, not noticing the two below. She had just arrived on the scene, which would explain the sudden shadow over them. "Let's go before she watches us too," he added quietly, and slowly pulled the brunette with him. They snuck away, relief filling their lungs along with oxygen that she had been too preoccupied with other matters to pay any mind to their presence.

"Do you think anyone else noticed?" Takuya wondered, his voice still low.

"I don't really care if anyone else did. Do you think it was the same woman?" The ravenette kept his eyes on the other, and his hand held tightly onto the brunette's.

"It could have been. All I could really make out was that it was a woman, and her head kept on the flower shop. I just hope she wasn't following us with her eyes…" Takuya cringed, and bit his lower lip at the thought. "Do you think she's anywhere here?"

"I doubt it." Kouji found himself checking anyway for good measure. "Well, I don't see anyone at least." He had compulsively worked to reassure the brunette, which bothered him some. Rather than do, he should have thought about it. See if it was really worth settling frivolous concerns. Really, he was being too nice lately, even if he was trying to make up for being such a jerk before.

"Look… we should go see Wolf. But, at the same time with that woman showing up after floral chick got abducted… I don't think it's safe. How does it sound that you go home with that, and I'll head over there myself?"

"You're nuts." Takuya snorted, placing the hand holding the tape on his hip. "They were after Kouichi too. What if they think they got a second chance when they see you?"

"Aww, you worried about me?" Kouji teased, grinning jokingly.

"Yes!" Takuya scowled, his expression remaining completely serious. The clone's grin vanished completely.

"Oh." Beyond that, he wasn't sure how to respond. Quickly feeling embarrassed at how easily Kouji was shut up, Takuya blushed faintly and shook his head.

"Just… let's go. I'll call Wolf tonight, and then we'll head over there tomorrow afternoon. At least then we'll get Tiene to help us find our way in," Takuya muttered, yanking the other forward.

"All right." Kouji was still amazed. Perhaps being too nice was worth it… because now, Takuya really did worry about him. Now he knew the other really wasn't kidding when he said he considered the clone his friend. He smiled. His first real friend. It made him… happy.

They returned to the Kanbara household, though with the tardiness of their arrival Kouji had to sneak in through the brunette's window. Meanwhile, Takuya tried to hurry up to his room and avoid any prying questions from his worried parents. Thanks to Yutaka's kindness, they found out he had dropped by the shop. He did his best to put their concerns at ease quickly, not wanting to be held back while the clone was up in his room waiting.

"Are you really sure you're okay? Because if you ever need to talk…" Mrs. Kanbara tried, one hand over her chest while her lips were held down in an uneasy position.

"I know, you're there to listen." Takuya smiled at his mother briefly. "Really, I'm all right." He gave a nod with his words hoping that'd help.

"Well, okay. As long as you know." As she spoke, her voice got quieter—just that more defeated by her son's stubborn insistence he was okay. He gave her another nod, before hurrying back up the stairs. She sighed, and leaned her head back while closing her eyes. "Do you think he was lying to me?"

"From how Yutaka was talking, he just might not be. There could be a few white lies in there, but… it seems like he's finally getting over it," Mr. Kanbara assured her, and walked over to hug her from behind. He gently kissed her left temple. "Come on, help me with dinner."

Back upstairs, Takuya made his way into his room slowly to make sure no one caught sight of Kouji. He quickly closed the door, and breathed a sigh of relief. That that part was over.

"Right… so we'll just have to pass time until everyone's off to bed to grab dinner and the phone." The brunette nodded to his own suggestion. "Yeah, that just might work out," he mumbled on, locking his door. Not everyone knocked.

"…so, how do we pass the time?" Kouji and the brunette couldn't carry on a conversation for long. Sure, they could talk about what possible answers they found… what all these things could mean. But it was uncomfortable.

"Err…" Obviously Takuya didn't know. He looked around his room, trying to find something they could do together to help them wait out everyone else. Then he caught sight of something, and grinned.

"So… do you think you're a Sony or Nintendo fan?"

Right then, Kouji didn't know just what those meant.

…

….

…

"Hah! What now? My second strike!" Takuya grinned, wiggling the Wii remote controller mischievously in front of him as his Mii celebrated. The clone paid no mind to the brunette's facial expressions or body motions - he was too busy trying to figure out how that demented character was supposed to represent the other. It looked nothing like Takuya.

"Kouji? Hello?" It was difficult to gloat when no one was even listening.

"What?" Kouji snapped, brows furrowed as he looked up from the screen. The brunette raised one of his. "Yeah, whatever that's nice…" the clone grumbled, settling back down as he watched the game once more. He had no idea what the other just said, only that this was the strangest form of entertainment he had ever seen. Not to mention, he almost got hit in the head on several occasions, before he finally accepted the fact he had to move if he wished to retain all of his brain cells.

"I'm trying to brag here, and you're ignoring me. Why must you make this so difficult? It's half the fun of the game…" Honestly. Takuya couldn't understand the guy.

"If that's your concept of fun, I'm glad you never messed with this until now…" Kouji complained loudly, resituating himself on the edge of the futon. "Speaking of which, why haven't you? Seem to like it enough." It was true. The brunette had been happily occupied through the various types of WiiSports, while Kouji looked on with mild interest. He didn't necessarily want to play… but he was curious.

"…didn't really care to," Takuya mumbled, and hit the button to move on to the next stage.

"How? You look like you're having fun," Kouji pointed out, leaning back on his hands with his legs crossed in a bored fashion. "And back when I hassled you, you could have just turned it on and blasted the sound beyond anything my vocals could dream of achieving."

Takuya laughed some at that. "I could have, but then I'd be deaf now." He nodded to his own point, and 'threw' the bowling ball. "And to be honest… it's not really… that fun by yourself."

"Hm." Kouji got it now. Kouichi must have played with him before, and now that he was gone… the brunette had no one to play with. And playing alone must have been a cruel reminder.

"Hey… would you say… that Kouichi and I are a lot alike?" It was something he was afraid to ask, but he had to know the truth. Because really, he didn't know much about his predecessor other than he was kind and a true friend.

"Alike? There's few similarities." Takuya laughed. Pausing the game, he set the controller down and sighed. "Hmm… naturally, your physique. You two could pass for a pair of twins, but that might be it. Well… he's a lot nicer than you. But you can be as considerate as he was… not nearly as often though." He chuckled some, and ran a tan hand through his hair while slowly pushing his hat and goggles off. "You speak up way more than he ever did. He was really softspoken. There were so many times that people would pick on him… even hurt him, and I'd have to run in there to save him." Mahogany eyes softened, almost glistened.

Kouji listened quietly, carefully watching the other.

"You just… say whatever, whenever. To be honest, you're one of the first people I've ever had trouble talking back to. Guess I know how Kouichi must have felt towards some of those people… knowing exactly what you want to say, but it just won't come out. How he loved to draw too. You don't seem to have any interest in the arts though… except that one time you complimented his work, of course." Takuya grinned slightly at the memory. "He was way more patient too…"

"I thought you were naming our similarities?" Kouji asked softly, his arms crossed. He looked over at the brunette.

Takuya blinked his eyes rapidly, as he realized this as well. He chuckled again, a small smile on his face as his eyelids lowered. "Sorry but, there aren't really that many." He shrugged some. "You two are as different as day and night."

"Hmm…" Kouji looked up at the ceiling. Different as day and night, eh? He gave a relieved smile, and released a breath he had held in. This entire time he had been so afraid of someone seeing him as a replacement. If he had only taken the time to ask, then he would have learned that wasn't possible. They were too different from one another, and it never would have worked out, unless Kouji wanted to replace Kouichi. But he felt no desire to do so, and the pressures of someone expecting him to were gone. Takuya saw him as him. And really… now that he thought about it, the brunette was the only person whose opinion he cared about. No one else mattered, because no one else was his friend.

"Kouji?" Takuya asked, noticing the other starting to space out on him.

"I'm here," Kouji responded immediately, returning his gaze to the brunette who jumped some from such an immediate reaction.

"You were going off to your own little world," Takuya informed him, looking at him quizzically. Kouji seemed happy about something. But what or why, he had no idea. It was almost creepy…

"No, I was just thinking." Kouji shrugged. He then grinned over at the brunette, and stood up to stretch. "I want a turn on this… Nintendo thing of yours."

"All right. C'mere, I'll show you how to play," Takuya laughed. If that was all it was… he didn't mind it at all. The two continued to play, laughing and even finding themselves getting competitive. Further into the night, they even began to attempt the one million Mii challenge and came up with some of the most absurd and demented things imaginable. When they got bored of that aspect of the console, the brunette set up his PlayStation so the two could watch movies. He let the clone pick whatever movie he wanted, as the brunette had personally watched them all at some point.

Between comedies accidentally picked out, and overly-dramatic love stories, the two kept one another entertained. At some point, they even muted the volume to make imaginary dialogue. The dramatic love stories quickly became over-exaggerated tales of samurai wanting to regain their dignity once lost through a series of awkward events, while the comedies were apparently Disney stories being told through subliminal messaging. When Takuya's mother went upstairs to get ready for bed, she stopped, hearing all the commotion.

She heard two sets of laughter. _Does Takuya have a friend over…?_ she wondered to herself. She sighed, and shook her head with a small smile. That was fine. If he invited someone over without permission… for a rare change, she just didn't care. Her son was laughing again. He was happy again, and that was enough for her. She'd just ask about it later, and leave her child to enjoy himself once more. She tiptoed away to pretend as though she was never there. Hours continued to drain by, until it was late in the night.

"Oh, hey… Takuya?" Kouji had noticed it first. His stomach grumbling, anyway. "Do you think everyone's asleep yet?" he asked, pausing the movie to try and listen for anyone.

"Uh…" Takuya got up, and flipped open the laptop. "Crap. Uhm, yeah. They're definitely asleep at this point." The brunette sighed, and lightly smacked his head on the desk. "At least I know why my eyes have been getting heavy…" he grumbled, and stood up to stretch some while yawning.

"What time is it?" Kouji inquired, getting up as well to see. Looking over the brunette's shoulder, he grinned in amusement. "Someone stayed up past bedtime. It's midnight." He snickered, and dodged the other's attempt to elbow him in the stomach.

"Shut up. Unlike you, I can't sleep in." Takuya scowled, and walked over to his door. "Wait here, I'll get dinner. And do you think you can call Wolf for me tomorrow? I don't want to call them this late, whether or not they're awake. Just doesn't seem right to call outside of regular business-hours," he joked, and quickly sneaked out of the room.

"No, I can't call him tomorrow… I'm always sooo busy while you're at school," Kouji remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the other's retreat. He gave another stretch of his own, and looked around the once clean room. Together, they had managed to trash it. Quite nicely, if he were to say so himself. DVD cases were strewn all over the floor, games lay scattered all around the television because Kouji actually got into all of it. They had tossed off their jackets during WiiSports because all the movement was making them hot, and the blanket on the bed was even falling off. Put simply, ruining the brunette's room was a fun experience, especially when it was done with aforementioned brunette, rather than out of spite towards him.

Takuya was fun to be with. Kouji couldn't, and would no longer deny this fact. He was also finding himself secretly happy that he was doing a lot of things with the brunette that Kouichi had never done. When Takuya played video games, Kouichi would just sit at the desk and draw away… that was why it was so close to the television. During movies they'd watch in enjoyable silence, unless it was a horror film in which case they'd try and make jokes. However, Kouji just couldn't sit still or keep quiet when he sat next to the other while they watched. Something inside him wanted to make a snide comment to get a reaction from the other, and each time he did there was this sense of pride and accomplishment. He enjoyed the brunette's attention on him, and nothing else.

"Leftovers for us, what lucky guys we are," Takuya sighed, returning to the room somewhat annoyed. "Whatever they made tonight, they ate all of it and left me nothing. I think I'm forgotten," he half-joked, with a slight grin. Kouji simply gave a small grin back, and took his plate. _Why does it matter if he is watching me or not?_ Those few moments of suddenly being alone, the clone had learned something about himself that he couldn't even begin to understand.

…

….

…

"Are you going to answer, or what?" Kouji hissed, holding the phone up to his ear. He had been listening to that aimless ring for what felt like hours, but realistically had been maybe two minutes. Regardless, a phone should not have been ringing for two ridiculous minutes. Especially theirs. They had caller I.D. on their phone. They should have seen someone from Takuya's house was calling, and whether or not they thought it was just Kouji trying to harass them, they needed to answer. What if Takuya was in trouble? Were they just going to let the phone ring, while something horrible transpired? A bunch of useless people, in the clone's opinion.

He gave an exasperated sigh, and lightly tapped the back of his head against the wall he leaned against. "You have got to be kidding me…" He closed his eyes. "Pick up the phone. I know someone is there, no one there is stupid enough to leave all those expensive POS's alone. And if they are, I must be some kind of miracle of God to be alive and standing here." Kouji was having trouble not being agitated with the lack of response. Takuya had asked him to do something so simple, that one had to be completely inept with numbers in order to fail. Call Wolf. Simple as that. He was doing so, and now just had to wait for the man to answer his phone. It had been ringing for three minutes straight now.

They better not have unplugged it. He would be so ticked off if they did. With another sigh, he hung up. Opening his dark blue eyes, he decided to try again later. This settled his nerves, though he was still aggravated by Wolf's silence. Going back to Takuya's room, he looked around at the damage inflicted from last night with a sense of pride. Then his eyes landed on the tape, with the oleander on top. He stuffed them into one of the drawers of the computer desk, before dashing back downstairs to the phone. Maybe they weren't answering for a reason.

Still no answer came. The phone rang… rang… rang… and continued to ring. This time, he was more patient with the endless ringing. Now they had to answer not only so that the two could warn the… doctors? scientists? …whatever they called themselves, of their coming, but because it was a matter of whether or not anyone was even there. If they weren't, hopefully it was from mere stupidity rather than the same reason Yuri wasn't seen at work. An hour passed. The clone was tired of the same mind numbingly boring sound, all but burning its sound into his mind. Takuya had better appreciate his effort. Reward him for it. Thinking about it, Kouji leaned against the wall once more.

What kind of reward would he want though? He wasn't like a dog, satisfied with a gracious meal. Besides, he didn't trust the brunette's cooking. There was just something about how the other seemed to avoid it that concerned him. Kouji wasn't easily content with a mere 'thank you' either, he wanted something better. But what? He couldn't really think of anything… he moved away from the wall and blew out an frustrated breath. There weren't enough things that he liked or disliked for him to know what he really wanted. And how he wanted something good for putting himself through all of this…

It had been two hours now. Kouji was busying himself by trying various types of food… even mixing them to see what his taste buds preferred. When there was one his tongue strongly disliked, he'd merely force himself to swallow it so that he didn't waste their food. This happened often, because he got a bit too carried away in mixing tastes. There were things that should have never been. Once he was full, he began to contemplate other ways to amuse himself. Then he noticed the time on the microwave. It clearly stated that within the next hour the brunette would be getting out of school. Well… he could wait for Takuya to get home to tell him. Or… hanging the phone up once more, Kouji grabbed shoes to make his way out of the house and back to the school.

Naturally, he made sure the door was locked before he left. Although he made it there earlier than he wanted, to he didn't care. This would save them time, or so he reasoned. It had nothing to do with the fact he just couldn't wait to see the brunette. Nothing. He didn't want to either. Really. He hung out by a library next to the school, built for convenience's sake, and without a clock to keep track of the time he'd peek out on occasion to check whether the school let its students out yet. All the while, he still heard the ridiculous ringing of the phone echoing in his ears. It was trying to drive him crazy, he just knew it.

A bell rang, and he knew it was time. Students poured from the doors, and he groaned. Of course. How was he supposed to know there were that many of them? He came here to get just one, and instead hundreds come out. How was he supposed to spot one from so many? Takuya wasn't some anti-conformist, and he blended in more because of it. Why couldn't the brunette strive to dress drastically different from everyone else? Then he spotted the hat and goggles… along with a girl with blonde hair and another with pink hair walking with the brunette. He grinned. Now, how to get to them without being noticed?

"TAKUYA!" he hollered, and dashed behind a tree when a few people looked in his direction. The brunette glanced around, trying to find out who called his name. Mimi and Izumi looked as well, curious.

"LIBRARY!" Kouji added, sweat-dropping as he realized unless he stood out in everyone's view then they would only hear someone calling the brunette's name.

"…should we?" Izumi asked, peering over towards the library.

"I think so. It sounded like Kouji…" Takuya said with a soft chuckle, and started making his way over there. He knew he should be more cautious, especially after yesterday… but it really did sound like the ravenette. Not to mention there were students everywhere. Besides, not to sound like he stereotyped, but he felt safe traveling with two lesbians. Two very effeminate and girly lesbians at that. This meant twice the pepper spray and purses containing ten pounds of make-up to knock someone out with.

"Exactly. Should we?" Izumi repeated, making Mimi laugh and the brunette roll his eyes in an amused fashion.

"Yes, so come on." Takuya motioned for them to follow, and headed over to the library. He looked around to see where the clone was hiding, before he was poked on the shoulder by Kouji. "Oh. There you are." He blinked, and then crossed his arms. "You have a problem with staying in the house." The clone shrugged.

"What can I say? It's boring," Kouji answered plainly, not offering much of a real excuse.

"After your first day of school, I'm surprised to see you back here again," Izumi noted, raising a questioning brow at the clone as she crossed her arms in a challenging manner.

"Ah, Izumi… what if he came here for some kind of reason?" Mimi suggested, trying to make peace before some kind of war broke out. She could already tell the blonde and ravenette were ready to smack heads.

"Which is exactly what I did," Kouji confirmed with a nod, and then looked to Takuya while ignoring the women. "I couldn't get ahold of anyone there. I'm not kidding when I say I was on the phone waiting for someone to pick up for nearly two hours."

"You have that much tolerance? When'd you take some kind of relaxer?" Izumi demanded, placing both hands on her hips and narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him.

"Izumi, let them talk. It sounds important." Mimi added her input once more, and placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Besides, if people they are trying to reach aren't answering phones then that sounds troublesome."

"More of concerning," Takuya muttered, placing a thoughtful hand on his chin. "Do you think anyone's there?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't have some kind of sixth sense that tells me if anyone's home or not." Kouji scowled, crossing his arms and looking away. Hearing the brunette sound that worried bothered him.

"Hey, chill out," Takuya yelped, holding up both hands in a surrendering motion. "Just asking for your opinion, really."

"He must be a handful," Izumi stated with a factual nod of her head. "I'm sorry you have to go through all of this."

"He's not really that much of a handful… he's… moody." Takuya wasn't sure how else to put it, and immediately regretted his word choice when receiving Kouji glared at him. Ouch. Someone was grouchy suddenly.

"Well… if neither of you know, and no one answered the phone… why not go over there and check up on them? It sounds important, from the way you two are talking…" Mimi suggested helpfully. For a ditz, she hit the mark pretty well.

"All right. That fine with you?" Takuya asked, looking over at the now very sour Kouji.

"Sure, whatever." The clone shrugged, his glare reigned in, but annoyance still clear in his tone. The brunette sighed heavily, and shook his head. Moody indeed.

"You sure? Will you two be safe?" Izumi asked, looking between the two. She wasn't so sure she felt comfortable leaving the brunette's safety in the clone's hands…

"Yeah, we'll be fine. Really, don't worry about a thing. You two be safe as well." Takuya nodded, and the blonde gave him a quick hug. Kouji tried to ignore a sudden flare of jealousy.

"Okay… so long as you two are safe," Izumi reiterated, and released the brief hug to start walking away with Mimi.

"So… ready to go?" Takuya asked brightly, hoping to bring up the clone's mood somehow.

"Tch. Whatever." Kouji turned and headed off in the direction of Wolf's lab. The brunette was left standing there, blinking and trying to figure out why the other's mood seemed to get worse and worse with each passing moment. What got into the other? Was all the ringing he had to endure earlier finally starting to get to him? With a shake of his head, trying to clear those thoughts and curiosities away, he hurried after the clone so he wouldn't be entirely left behind.

"Hey… you okay?" Takuya inquired curiously, hoping he'd get an answer. Maybe an explanation… perhaps an entire venting session with the other? They could complain about various things together… Kouji, how much life sucked because he had none. Takuya, because his life was getting turned upside down beyond recognition.

"Does it matter?" Kouji asked, looking at the other an accusingly. As if this was all the brunette's fault. Whose else could it be? If Takuya never asked him to call Wolf, then he wouldn't have that incessant ringing in his ears. If the brunette wasn't so much fun to be around, then the clone would have never gotten impatient to see him. If Takuya didn't have other friends, then the ravenette wouldn't feel jealous of anyone. Simple as that - it was all the brunette's fault. He was glad to have this conversation with himself, he felt better now.

"Well… yeah. Why wouldn't it?" Takuya answered cautiously, now very much worried he'd say something to somehow worsen the other's mood. They were just now starting to get along… he didn't want to lose that.

"Why would it?" Kouji retorted, his tone annoyed as one brow twitched. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, a sour expression on his face and planning to remain that way.

"Uh-uhm… well…" Takuya stammered, looking around as though his surroundings would provide a valid reason. "Because I don't like it when you're upset?" He couldn't think of a better or more intelligible reason.

"And what you like is simply that important, right?" Kouji scoffed, keeping on his facade of anger towards the brunette. He blamed his foul mood on the other, and he would continue doing so until he felt better.

"N-no… that's not what I meant," Takuya mumbled, trying to think of a better reason. He had to admit, his response was weak and that kind of reaction from Kouji should have been expected. "Look." The brunette took a deep breath, and released it. "Whatever I did to tick you off, I'm sorry. All right? And it just matters to me whether you're okay or not. If you can't accept it, then fine. Just means it doesn't matter to you whether I'm okay or not." That made more sense… right?

"…whatever." Kouji didn't care anymore. The brunette cringed at that, and quickly fell silent. _Kouji, I swear sometimes you can be a giant pain in my as--_ Takuya's thoughts were cut off when a burst of light flashed by his face, centimeters away. He stood frozen, and the clone whirled around the second he heard a strange eruption from behind.

"What just…?"

Another blast fired though. This time it nearly hit the clone, who jumped back. A third could be heard getting set off, and Kouji grabbed the frozen Takuya to yank him back into motion away from the shots.

"Run!" he ordered, and once more forced the brunette to come with him. The two broke off into a run to get away from the bursts of light attempting to hit them. Luckily, whoever was shooting had horrid aim.

That day, they never got to Wolf's. They had run home, and once there all Takuya could do was shake while Kouji tried to find a way to calm the brunette down. He couldn't think of any.

* * *

**A/N:** I don't care about your logic... stuff. But I do know that I am mighty unsure if Kouji and Takuya end up through true love... or Stockholm Syndrome. XD (I'll pretend it is through true love, even if not all of you will ultimately agree with me) Anyway, you guys got lucky. My laptop cord snapped, and almost all of the chapters are only on it. However - when rummaging through my email, I found the corrected chapters sent to me by my amazing beta-reader, Solange MacLeod. Of course, thirteen is incomplete and has not been corrected so until I get a replacement you are all left with this. I SEND MY LOVE! x3

**Disclaimer:** Nope. Still do not own or affiliate with any of the Digimon series, nor its owners.


	13. Our Thoughts, Their Threats

_Evolution. The concept, the idea that over time creatures change to better adapt themselves to their surroundings. You, who had once been no more than emotion and faith… have evolved past that of human. Now you are less than God, but higher than the love which had allowed you to grow beyond your meager soul. Which path will you choose: the right which will lead you to take away everything, or the left which will steal away your everything?_

_

* * *

_

It was night. For the first time in a while, Takuya got to sleep on his own futon while Kouji gazed silently out of the brunette's room window. He wanted to know what those things of light were, and who was shooting at them. They had been so caught up in getting away, neither bothered to look. There were so many things that befuddled his brain, so many thoughts that took hold of his mind… he just couldn't sleep. There was too much going on in his head, that sleep was a far-off desire. He turned his attention on the sleeping brunette.

Just days ago he hated Takuya so much. He couldn't stand him. Tolerate him. Even talk to him. But now… he couldn't even fathom being without the brunette. He had never been so afraid in his life than when he heard that gun shot and though… well, it scared him, the idea of losing the brunette. When did he let himself become so dependent on the other? More importantly, why? It all started with him wanting to be more civil… and now he found himself worrying about the brunette's safety and staying up until odd hours having fun with him. How did Takuya so easily steal away all of the cruelty inside of Kouji?

Blowing out a breath, the ravenette craned his neck back so that his blue orbs gazed silently onto the ceiling. Not that he expected to see much. None of the lights were on, and only the streetlamps from outside provided any sort of luminescence. He was actually more bothered by his pressing sense of urgency regarding his own personal inquiries, than by those brought upon by Kouichi's death. After everything the two had gone through, he should have been compelled to concentrate more on what was at stake. For Takuya, anyway. What was at stake for him, Kouji?

This made him frown, with his brows furrowing as they so often did. Indeed, what **was** at stake for him? Once they figured out what was going on, then what? Avenge Kouichi? Turn the ghost-murderers in? …what would happen to Kouji? How long would he live hidden in the brunette's room? If he was getting cabin fever this early on in his existence, what about a year from now? Two? With a frustrated growl, he ran his fingers through his ponytail. Then with a scowl, he undid the ponytail before stuffing the hairtie into his pocket as roughly at he could. There was that agitated sensation again. Before he was so content, but now he felt like pacing all over the room and screaming his lungs out.

What if their attacker had good aim? What if Takuya had been hit? There was a cold feeling in his pit at the thought. _What would happen to me?_ He wondered quietly. Suddenly, a reality came crashing upon him. His world was so small, so tiny. Essentially, Kouji's life revolved around Takuya's. If anything ever happened to the brunette… yes, that had to be it. The jealousy, the desire to be around Takuya. That was all it was. If anything happened to the brunette, he would simply have nothing left. Surely, it was that simple.

But it wasn't. Something still felt wrong. There was… something, still completely out of place. That explained why he was so bothered by the brunette dying. On the other hand, what if their attacker had killed Kouji? All Takuya would see… was another friend getting shot. _Trying to protect him…_ his eyes widened, and he glanced away from the ceiling to stare in confusion down at himself. He could have run off without the other, but instead he had grabbed the brunette's hand. He wanted them both to get to safety.

Slowly, almost shyly, the ravenette turned to look at the sleeping brunette. "I have… a friend." He whispered quietly, reminding himself. _A friend I want to protect. Just like… him…_ Was it normal to feel this way? Did all friends want to protect each other? Or did he just feel this way, because Kouichi did? With a sigh, he shook his head. Kouji was just going in circles, confusing himself. Quietly, he tiptoed over to where Takuya was sleeping.

The brunette appeared so… well, content. He looked so safe, wrapped up in his blankets. As if nothing happened earlier, as if nothing life-threatening had transpired. For reasons he was unable to grasp, Kouji wanted the other to remain that way. Always. To just be safe, and to even be happy. With a slight smile, he flicked some of the brown cowlicks sticking in strange angles away from the sleeping face's forehead. "Now, where am I going to sleep?" He asked with a soft chuckle. "But I guess…" He lowered his voice as many octaves as he could. "If it helps you sleep… I won't complain this time."

_If you have the tape, you have to be careful_. His own words suddenly came flashing back to him, and his eyes widened. _So if Yuri, and now us, had to be careful because we have the tape…_ All those hours of waiting for the phone to be answered. The florist suddenly disappearing, that woman appearing, and then them getting attacked… _what does Wolf have, for them to have to be careful as well? _They weren't missing.

They were hiding.

...

..

...

The two sat at the kitchen table, staring at one another. It was the afternoon, and the brunette had only just gotten back home from school. The morning had been… weird. At least, it fell into his definition of weird (which by the way, was constantly on the rise). When he awoke, Kouji was still up. Initially the brunette thought he just woke up early, but he quickly learned that the other had not been able to get a wink of sleep from the bags beneath the ravenette's eyes. Immediately Takuya made a mental note to give the futon up from henceforth.

The first thing he heard, while trying to make sense of the other's early-morning consciousness was, "We need to talk." Takuya thought that had meant right then, and simply groaned while attempting to fall back asleep. "I mean later. After school." Kouji had sighed, with more drowsiness in his words than exasperation. This was more reassuring, and immediately the brunette resumed trying to wake up. "And… I think I should walk you to school. After what happened yesterday."

"…what?" Takuya blinked, rubbing the crust from his eyes in confusion. "But… what if someone…?"

"Takuya. We almost got **killed** yesterday, and you're worried about someone seeing me?" Kouji scoffed, giving a peculiar sort of glare at the brunette. Peculiar because he was trying to make it as intense as possible, but because his eyelids kept trying to close on their own the brunette honestly had difficultly realizing that was even a glare.

"Yeah… but… Kouji, I'll be fine." Takuya murmured, throwing his legs off of the bed to place feet clad in gray wooly socks onto the floor. Giving a yawn, the brunette then just flopped back onto the bed. Reality had still yet to sink in.

"How do you know that?" Kouji had snapped, his glare suddenly flaring up. This time, the brunette could tell feel the heat coming from it and decided opening his eyes was not the wisest of decisions right then.

"Nnnmm… Kouji. It's early in the morning…" Takuya whined, and yanked his pillow over his face. It had taken several minutes, but the brunette who was slowly regaining an awareness only a fully rested person could have was able to sway the concerns of a rapidly tiring ravenette. Even so… Takuya was a bit perplexed by Kouji's sudden urge to walk him to **school**. Had yesterday's events been so… traumatic? The brunette spent his entire day at school wondering just that. And then each time he remembered, he began to wonder why he did not take the other up on the offer… the walk home had been terrifying. Every time he heard a strange sound, he would jump or whirl around while expecting one of 'them' to appear before him to finish their job.

"So… are you sure?" Takuya finally asked, looking up from his fingers to look the other in the eye. When he got home, Kouji had been waiting for him and sat the other down. The bags were gone, for the most part, so the brunette knew the other had finally passed out. Likely on the futon.

"I can't be one-hundred percent positive, but if you think about it… it's possible." Kouji answered, his eyes never having once left the other. "Takuya, these people…" He shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. His existence, the ravenette concluded, made his own self feel incredibly awkward. Had he just been born differently, that would have been fine. But the fact he had no childhood, no… nothing, until a few short weeks ago made him feel… so much farther away from humanity, even though that was technically what he was. "They created me."

"Yeah, but…" Takuya said quietly, and opened his mouth to say more but could think of nothing. He sighed, eyes becoming downcast.

"They aren't idiots, as much as I would like to think them to be. They received an e-mail, and filled out an… order." Kouji hated talking about himself this way, but it was the facts and there was no skirting around something Takuya was putting so much into. Distantly he was bothered by the fact he was continuously doing more and more for the brunette, but at the same time… "And were able to track down that it was Kouichi. Who is to say they didn't find out more, and just didn't tell us? The florist told us to be careful…"

"But I don't get that!" Takuya protested, suddenly bolting up out of his seat. "Those… those people! They initially went in there for her!" It was then he realized that he had never really filled Kouji in on all the details at the flowershop.

"They were?" The clone inquired, furrowing his brows.

"…yeah…" Takuya mumbled, and immediately plopped down. "Well…" He had to tell the other what took place. How could he expect Kouji to help him, if the ravenette was not even properly informed of all the details? Taking a deep breath, he was ready to begin explaining.

"All right." Kouji simply nodded, stopping the other. "So if they were initially after her, why didn't they grab her later?" He murmured, and interlaced his fingers together before resting his mouth on them. "Well, they **did** but it was after we got the tape from her…" As he proceeded to talk to himself quietly, the brunette just stared in a dumbfounded fashion. Didn't Kouji want to know more details? Wasn't he… well, curious? …how much… had the other changed in the course of a few days? Or had Takuya himself changed? "Unless they were waiting for something."

"Waiting? For what though?" Takuya found himself speaking before he actually thought about responding. He had just been knocked off-track by the other, and apparently other parts of him were determined to get back where they belonged. The clone was silent, his expression revealing just how deeply in thought he was. Blue eyes suddenly widened, as though an epiphany of grand proportions had just gone off. He started to open his mouth to share his grand discovery, until the two heard the front door being unlocked. The two froze, their muscles tensing in fear and apprehension. Only Takuya's parents and his younger brother Shinya had keys. If it was 'them,' then they would have just appeared inside of the house.

Once logic kicked in, the two immediately stumbled over themselves and their chairs to hurry and save themselves from the more domestic danger. Kouji bolted towards the stairs, meanwhile Takuya tripped over invisible stones as he scrambled towards the front door in order to distract whoever just returned home. In came Mrs. Kanbara, who was somewhat confused in seeing her son groaning on the floor while holding a bag of groceries. This was… not what she had expected when getting home early. She quickly removed her shoes, before scuttling over to her child to check that he was all right.

"Sweetie, are you okay? Any bruises?" She inquired, maternal instincts kicking into overdrive.

"Y-yeah, fine mom…" Takuya said awkwardly, giving a weak grin that when combined with his strangely placed brows left his mother completely confused as to what sort of emotion he was hoping to get across. "Oh, here! Let me get that for you!" He yelped, and took her bag away from her before hurrying into the kitchen. In the process, he glanced over at the stairway to ensure that there was no one to be seen. Excellent, Kouji had returned to the safety of his room. The brunette let a small smile spread onto his face. This did not go unnoticed.

"Uhm… Takuya…" Mrs. Kanbara began, slowly walking over to her son. It took a great deal of self-control for her to not look over at the stairway as well. Actually, the only reason she was able to resist was because her son was smiling. Not the reassuring kind he always gave her these past two months, but an actual smile that was there to… just smile. A relaxed one. It had become such a rare sight for her. "Listen, sweetie… I need to talk with you about something." Her teenaged son stiffened. He thought that Kouji escaped… did she catch a glimpse of him?

"Y-yeah mom?" Takuya tried to not act nervous. But the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. He could not involve his family into any of this, nor could he risk his mother flipping out and doing something crazy. He just… could not lose Kouji. The sudden thought caught him off-guard, and briefly his tension disappeared from his stance as a flash of surprise came upon his visage.

"Now, I know… you've had a rough few months." She went on, and bit her lower lip. Was this all right? Was it too soon? Should she… let him continue to think he was getting away with this? No. She was his mother, and it was her duty to teach him right from wrong. These past few days she let him have his freedom, with the excuse he was recovering… but now, she had to stop it before it became a habit. "Listen, Takuya. You know I love you. But sweetie, you can't just invite friends over and not tell me. It's rude. I mean, just eating leftovers? And are these new friends, sweetie? Are they safe? You… you aren't hanging out with those ruffians, are you?" She just let all the questions spill out, and all the while Takuya just stood there with his jaw hanging open.

Then the relief ensued, and the brunette's knees nearly gave out from simply that. _Thank Kami-sama she didn't see him…_ He relished this fact. "Uh, yeah. He's a new friend." Takuya assured her with a nod, and a burst of good consciousness came with those words. For the first time in weeks, he was being honest with his parents. "Ah, singular. I've only been having the uh, one friend over." He continued to explain, and set down the groceries. In a burst of improved nature, he was even helping to put various bits away. "He's a great guy. We uh, don't always see eye to eye, but… he's nice. Not a ruffian." _Even though he tried to kill me once,_ "And… I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner. Or… asked." Now that the truth was partially out, he was impatient to resume his conversation with Kouji. Especially after the look of understanding the ravenette wore…

"I… I understand." Mrs. Kanbara began, taking this route cautiously. He was responding a little too well with this. And only one friend? She frowned some. "Well, what's his name? Is he here now? I would very much like to meet him." She was not accustomed to receiving answers so easily from him - was he lying to her? The sudden horrified expression he wore spoke volumes, even though he emitted no words. "I thought so." She nodded, and with her mind make up begin making her way towards the stairs. "I don't mind you having friends over, you know." She went on, her son making distressed sounds as he darted after her. "But there are rules - we have to know them first, and they cannot stay over after nine." She continued, following all of this up with a reminder about the importance of school.

"M-mom, wait!" Takuya gasped, and grabbed her wrist once the two reached the top of the stairs. Brown eyes gazed levelly down at him, and the brunette took in a sharp breath. "…listen. By now, he's probably already scrambled out of the window. As for meeting him…" He hesitated. He was already sliding so easily back into the lies. That relief he experienced with his brief brush with honestly as quickly receding once more. "I think that should wait. I know you want to, and I know the rules but… please. Trust me. That should wait. Wait until… we're ready."

Mrs. Kanbara stared at him, and she seemed unusually pale. Takuya could not figure out for the life of him as to why, but she simply took a deep breath and quietly nodded. "V-very well…" She stammered, and swayed. Alarmed, the younger brunette held tightly to his mother until she was stable once more. _Dear Kami-sama, my oldest son is gay,_ was all the woman could think. "I'll… finish putting the groceries away…" She whispered, slowly making her way back down the stairs. Takuya remained confused and unsure as to what just happened, but he was relieved. She was going to trust him - or at least, he thought that was what just happened.

...

..

...

"I made these." Kouji placed down several note cards, each with rather sloppy handwriting. He knew the characters, but had little practice in actual usage. With time and practice his penmanship would improve. Until then, what he provided was acceptable. "After you went to school. Had to do something until I could fall asleep." With this, he proceeded to give the brunette a pointed glare. "By the way, more concern for your own personal safety would start to be a good idea." He was still offended, and even somewhat disturbed at how easily the attack was being shrugged off by the other. The two had been shot at - how could Takuya be so relaxed still?

"…" The brunette chose to ignore this. Then again, he did not have an answer. Grabbing one of the cards, he read, _Oleander = to beware_. So these were a collection of what the two knew. Rummaging through, he noticed there were two piles - one consisted of the writing on the blank side, while the other entirely of notes on the lined side. "What are these?" He asked, picking one up to read. _Yurei: A person who has died in a sudden fashion, or whose body did not have the proper rights performed upon. Influenced by powerful emotions._ Realization dawned upon him that, just as he had asked, the ravenette had been doing research.

"Notes." Kouji shrugged, and began turning on the laptop. "I found some sites that are a bit… interesting." He had hesitated - why? "And also, about what I was saying in the kitchen. What they were waiting for. I don't mean for this to sound as self-centered as it does, but… what if they were waiting for me?" He asked, voice strangely detached. The brunette felt a chill begin from within, before spreading out to his skin and making his arm hairs stand up. There was an unnerving logic in that sentence.

"I… I don't know." Takuya finally murmured quietly. He did not want to think about that.

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**Disclaimer:** In no way, shape, or form do I own or have any affiliation with Bandai or the creators of the Digimon series past or present.  
**A/N:** Hey dumplings! I have returned! ...with an immensely ornery power chord, BUT THAT IS OKAY. Kouji's potential Stockholm Syndrome is getting worse - and look! I think Takuya's getting it too! XD YAY FOR DYSFUNCTIONAL AND POTENTIALLY UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS! UNF. What? Aaaanyway. So I am considering re-writing this crack Koukuya ficlet I wrote back in the day that I LOST. It was all kinds of ridiculous. Probably the bad kind of ridiculous, but even so it made me giggle. It involves a kingdom being invaded by ants, and babysitting while requiring you sustain your belief to THE MAX... OVER 9000! Yeah. See you next chapter! (My tone so does not match what I write...)


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